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Port Nuclear Detection Gear To Cost $3.1 Billion

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The Associated Press

Published: September 23, 2008

WASHINGTON - It will cost at least $1 billion more than the Bush administration expected to deploy advanced radiation detection equipment at the country's ports, government auditors said Monday.

The Government Accountability Office - the investigative arm of Congress - projects it will cost $3.1 billion through 2017 to equip U.S. ports with machines that are capable of sensing a nuclear bomb hidden in a shipping container.

The Bush administration had planned to spend $2.1 billion to use more than 2,000 of the current and advanced detection machines to screen rail car, airport and seaport cargo, the GAO said.

The monitors that are currently in use can detect the presence of radiation, but they cannot distinguish between threatening and non-threatening material. Radioactive material can be found naturally in ceramics and kitty litter, for instance.

The next generation equipment, which is called Advanced Spectroscopic Portals, should be able to differentiate between the dangerous and the safe radioactive material and produce fewer false positives.

Currently, the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach gets between 400 and 500 nuclear alarms a day.

The new equipment should reduce that to 40 to 50, administration officials have said.

About 200 customs officers currently investigate the alarms. The new detection equipment would reduce their workload.

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