By Calvin Biesecker
One of the results of a new strategic plan expected later this year for the nation’s nuclear detection architecture will be a greater focus on detecting potential radiological and nuclear threats inside the country, the new director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) said yesterday.
Describing his vision for interior enforcement, Warren Stern said that it will require working closely with state and local officials and that “ultimately” there would be detectors “on every block and every policeman can have a manageable detector that will identify threat material.”
Stern couldn’t put a timeline on when his vision might become reality, acknowledging that the cost and size of such a proliferated use of radiation detectors need to be addressed as does improving their accuracy.
“It’s not practical today,” Stern told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology. “While I said every cop, it may be every other cop, or every 10 cops.”
Stern pointed to the ongoing Securing the Cities (STC) program, in which a nuclear detection architecture has been implemented in the New York City region, as demonstrating how on the local level the use of radiation detection systems is feasible.
“A very large number…number of police officers do have chirpers and handheld devices so it is not an outlandish concept,” Stern said. “It’s reaffirmation that I believe we need to focus internally with state and local officials and see where the analysis takes us.”
Stern was in New York on Monday and reviewed part of the STC effort, telling the panel that he was “impressed with the competence and dedication of the police in using the radiation detection equipment.”
Stern said his vision for interior enforcement means providing more support to state and local officials for capabilities that detect and respond to potential radiological and nuclear threats. One thing that DNDO has changed in helping states and localities is how it supports a test and certification program whereby vendors with radiation detection technology can essentially get the agency’s seal of approval on a device or system and then market that product to state and local communities.
DNDO now pays for half the cost of funding the test efforts under the Graduated Rad/Nuc Detector Evaluation and Reporting program, Stern said. Previously, the agency didn’t provide any funding to vendors for the testing. So far, two firms have signed up for the program, he added.
The strategic plan that DNDO and the Department of Homeland Security are working on with other federal agencies is the Global Nuclear Detection Architecture. The plan is overdue, but Stern and other DHS officials have said it will be delivered to Congress by the end of 2010 (Defense Daily, Sept. 16). Stern wants more emphasis put on this plan as a way to guide future deployments of radiation detection technology.
DHS has tried to cut its support for the STC program the past two years, saying the program was meant to be a pilot effort and for the New York City region to decide whether to continue pursuing it on its own. However, Congress has continued to appropriate federal funds to maintain DNDO’s involvement in STC.
Stern said that DNDO is analyzing the program to decide how to proceed moving forward. That evaluation will conclude during FY ’11, he said.
In addition to the global architecture, the hearing also focused on other challenging programs that DNDO has faced, including the next-generation radiation portal monitor called the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal (ASP), and an advanced X-ray system that would automatically detect shielded nuclear material.
The technical component of ASP testing is basically done, which has shown that the technology will be useful for secondary inspections at the nation’s ports of entry, Stern said. But operational and field validation testing will resume in October and must be successful before determining if the program can proceed to a decision about production and deployment, he said.
ASP field testing and a decision on how to proceed is slated to be done by the end of FY ’11, Stern said.
Regarding the Cargo Advanced Automated Radiography System (CAARS), Stern said that this program is over. CAARS was originally supposed to result in production and deployment of systems at the nation’s ports of entry but a lack of coordination with the ultimate end user–Customs and Border Protection–left the design too large for port operations. The program was ultimately scaled back to a research and development effort that has concluded, with relevant technologies being used to advance other R&D efforts, Stern said.
How relevant CAARS technologies are used going forward will await a final program report later this year, Stern said.