Nukes, Monitors and Questions Continued
The dispute over the Department of Homeland Security's effort to buy a new kind of radiation detection machine continues to unfold.
Though it may seem arcane, a lot more is at stake than the $1.2 billion in contracts, which have been stalled by questions from the Government Accountability Office about the effectiveness of the machines and the department's efforts to test and deploy them.
Homeland security officials have repeatedly said that stopping a nuclear attack is a top priority, and that the machines known as radiation portal monitors are crucial to that effort.
Last week, the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce criticized plans by the Department of Homeland Security to have an outside review of department efforts to test and deploy the new, more expensive radiation detectors.
Chairman John D. Dingell and another lawmaker said in the Aug. 10 letter that it appeared as though the homeland security department was trying to do "an 'end run' with hastily planned and initiated 'independent review'" -- instead of allowing the GAO to follow through on its own review of the department's testing process.
The department has issued a tart response defending its efforts. In a letter to Dingell, Under Secretary for Management Paul A. Schneider said the independent review announced several weeks ago is not intended to conflict with the GAO efforts.
Schneider said "there appears to be several areas of misunderstanding related to this effort," including apparently the impression by some lawmakers that the department's effort is a biased ruse intended to generate a positive report.
"I do not pre-judge the viability of the program until I know the facts," Schneider wrote in the Aug. 20 letter.
The letter included an attachment with answers to specific questions about the program posed by Dingell last week.
Dingell's response: "I'm glad DHS recognizes that the GAO is well qualified to assess whether the newer radiation portal monitors DNDO is developing and testing will be effective in screening for radioactive materials and dirty bombs. This change in attitude by DHS is a constructive first step towards getting an objective assessment of the advanced spectroscopic portals before DHS commits up to $1.2 billion on new machines. The Committee will be holding hearings once the GAO's review is complete."
It has been more than a year since homeland security officials announced the contracts, more than five years since the country began pushing for a radiation detection network at border crossings, ports and suchlike. The government has spent many millions of dollars on a first generation of machines that don't work as well as officials want (in part because they have a tough time distinguishing between threatening radiation and more benign sources, such as cat litter).
One question now is: When will the country have a set of machines in place to screen for weapons many of us fear most?
By Robert O'Harrow |
August 23, 2007; 5:28 AM ET
homeland security
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Posted by: mgilfoy | August 23, 2007 2:40 PM
If these radiation portal monitors are expected to detect nuclear weapon materials inside shipping containers, it's no wonder efforts to develop them are prolonged. It's a technically difficult, if not impossible, problem. Radiation emissions of contraband materials must be detected above a continuous natural radiation background. Weapons materials emit only weak gamma rays and minimal amounts of other kinds of radiation, and in a large container there is ample room and weight capacity for effective shielding that can reduce the radiation emissions by large factors. Active interrogation methods (beaming neutrons or possibly other particles into the container) can be more effective but are subject to the same shielding effects, and also by the response of certain common non-weapons materials. Non-gamma-ray emitting dirty bomb materials pose just as difficult a problem. Given hours to inspect a container, detection would be less of a problem. However, with the staggering number of containers to be processed daily, only minutes are available.
Posted by: Bill Mosby | August 25, 2007 7:30 AM
What a great day to find out about the oupouring of endless monies!
Today I am moving out of my home I have owned for 12 years with my daughter. She is 12. Being a homeowner and a loan officer was a blessing in disquise. It allowed me to be here for her, care for her, yet still work out of my home. I am not eligible for any benefits from the state of Minnesota because I don't "have a job" I am cashless and friends have helped with food in the past year.
The days are over, where I have been an independant buisiness woman. My daughter loosing her school, friends and uprooting her sence of normalcy.
Nice to see the government is throwing all that money into a MAYBE when people are loosing their homes and having to move in with friends, still jobless.
The figures ARE NOT REAL! I am out there, employment is very SLIM. Hats off to the radiation detectors. Nice.
Posted by: Lost in the economy, MN | August 29, 2007 9:57 AM
I see no reason to worry. Big Brother may get a black eye for trying to dictate to Freedom loving people. Oh heck.. I dare any one to tell a vet to disarm!
Posted by: Robyn Cavalera | August 29, 2007 2:02 PM
To Lost in the economy. For the last two hundred years the original and only enduring job of the federal government has been to provide for the national defence, the security of the nation and the rule of law. I don't remember where it says in the constitution that the federal government is obligated to prop up the underperforming or whining segments of the economy even though it has done it many times
Posted by: victim of life | August 29, 2007 2:38 PM
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Disband Home land Security NOW !