By Calvin Biesecker
At the behest of federal agencies, Veritainer Corp. has entered into a 42-month Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for further development of the company’s radiation detection system mounted on a crane used to lift cargo containers.
The research is estimated to cost about $4 million during the life of the CRADA. Veritainer is hoping that funding for the work will be provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Lawrence Alioto, executive vice president for Business Development at Veritainer, told sister publication TR2.
The CRADA was established through a joint recommendation of the DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, Alioto said.
The recommendation followed a series of tests begun in 2007 and ending in late 2008 of Veritainer’s Crane Mounted Scanning (CMS) system. Those tests included use of the equipment in an operational environment at two terminals at the Port of Oakland in California, DHS managed testing at its Rail Test Center at the Port of Tacoma in Washington, and at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In total, the system has been tested at five terminals at three ports.
CBP is interested in the CMS technology for use in ports where containers are unloaded from a ship directly onto rail cars. There is also interest in the technology in general at U.S. ports if international ports demand the containers leaving the United States be screened for radioactive material or contraband. And at overseas ports where containers are unloaded from one vessel and directly loaded onto another, a process called transshipment, there is also interest in CMS systems, Alioto said.
The CMS fits right into a port’s existing infrastructure and can be used whether containers are being unloaded from inbound ships or loaded onto outbound vessels, Alioto said. Moreover, if the technology is used on cargo as its immediately being unloaded, if there’s an alarm it can be checked immediately, he said. In current operations, a container may sit in a port for days or weeks before it is run through a radiation portal monitor at the exit gate, meaning it may be too late if there’s a weapon of mass destruction inside.
With the CRADA, “Livermore in essence is our science and technology partner,” Alioto said.
The two most important things to work on up front under the cooperative development effort include ensuring that the CMS system can integrate with whatever neutron detection source the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) settles on as a replacement for Helium-3, which is in short supply. Alioto said that Veritainer’s CMS system is modular so that it can “accept new and better science” over time.
Another focus of the research and development will be the optimization of the gamma detection capability of the CMS system, he said.
“It works very well,” Alioto said. “The idea is to refine it and optimize it and make it as good as it can be.”
Since the previous rounds of testing completed in 2008, Alioto said the company has been busy on several fronts. One was lining up the new CRADA. Another has been the integration of the radiation detection system on a RAM spreader bar, he said. NSL Engineering and Veritainer announced the development of the RAM VeriSpreader in January 2009. The original CMS system was integrated on a Bromma spreader.
And, beginning late last year, Veritainer began work on a response to a Request for Information (RFI) from DNDO related to screening technology for on dock rail and transshipment of cargo containers. Veritainer is teamed with Battelle and Livermore on the effort. Battelle will help with the commercialization of the product and Livermore on the research and development.
DHS has $18 million in FY ’10 funds to spend on the effort. Alioto was in Washington, D.C., earlier this month for follow-on discussions with DNDO related to the RFI.
Alioto said that the software on the CMS system has also been rewritten, allowing the technology to be more sensitive to isotope identification and to produce fewer false alarms.
Ahead, Alioto said work under the CRADA will go on in parallel with additional operational testing that Veritainer hopes will be funded out of DNDO’s RFI. If the testing occurs, the goal is for it to begin this year, he said.