DHS shuts NYC radiation lab

As the New York City-based Environmental Measurements Laboratory (EML) is among the most obscure of DHS departments, it seems appropriate to explain what it did before, as the Washington Post reported last week, DHS decided to shut the place down entirely. Previously part of the Energy Department, EML at first focussed on detecting nuclear threats from North Korea, serving also as “a cross-check on radiation monitoring programs near nuclear plants and elsewhere.” The office also provided advice to law enforcement agencies on hand-held radiation detectors and port and infrastructure protection. Neverthless, the office had been the victim of continued budget cuts over the past few years. (It’s annual budget is a paltry $10 million.) It’s defenders say the office is being closed “because Department of Homeland Security officials in Washington failed to understand its work.”

“They’re … our main federal partner in terms of science,” NYPD said commisioner Jonathan Duecker. “If DHS decides to put an end to a program … it would have been nice for them to come up and ask us.” That would have been polite, but those who targeted EML for elimination have some strong words about the quality of work being produced at the laboratory. “It was a total bad penny,” said Parney Albright, founder of the DHS Science and Technology Directorate. “It was not a young place, not what anyone would argue is vibrant.” Among his concerns, say others, were the lab’s “ragged facilities and some longtime employees resistant to change.”