New York to test elaborate radiation detection monitring system
DHS will begin this spring testing an elaborate system of nuclear radiation monitoring in and around New York City; concerns persist about cost, effectiveness, and disruptions to commerce and traffic from false alarms
This spring New York City will become a testing ground for testing the efficacy of defensive and monitoring systems against nuclear and radiological attacks. Equipment will be installed and tested at a Staten Island port terminal, and later in the year DHS will set up a network of radiation alarms at bridges, tunnels, roadways, and waterways into New York, in the process creating a fifty-mile circle around the city. The new initiative is aimed as much to detect terrorist activities using home-made nuclear devices as it is aimed to detect and prevent the smuggling of such devices from abroad.
The Securing the Cities detection network, as the New York experiment is called, will be run by the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), an outfit established in DHS in April 2005. The goal would be to stop a nuclear or radiological threat as far away from a city as possible. To achieve this, the network may include truck inspection stations on highways leading into New York. Devices may also be installed at highway tollbooths and at spots where rail, boat, and subway traffic could be monitored.
In response to concerns about false alarms — and the disruption such alarms cause commerce and traffic — DNDO is planning to install new equipment at the New York Container Terminal. The new machines are said not only to detect radioactive material, but also simultaneously to identify the radioactive isotope. This should allow security personnel to distinguish between innocuous items which emit low levels of radiation, such as granite or kitty litter, and real threats.
-read more in Eric Lipton’s New York Times report
