Port Everglades Installs Radiation Detection Devices

Truckers exiting Port Everglades will soon have to pass through hi-tech radiation detectors — tall yellow pillars geared to tighten security against terrorism.

The equipment, known as radiation portal monitors, or RPMs, screens containers arriving from international destinations for nuclear and radioactive materials like those found in dirty bombs and nuclear weapons.

Seven RPMs, valued at $200,000 each, are now being installed at Port Everglades, and will be operational by mid-August, said Paul Stansbury, deputy site manager for Richland, Wa.-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Department of Energy Lab contracted to design and install the equipment.

The monitors are part of a federal goal to have 100 percent of all seagoing cargo containers scanned for radiation when they enter the United States by the end of September 2009.

"This is an enhancement to securing the borders," said Zachary Mann, special agent and spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, "and an enhancement to the various layers we have to detect potential threats that could be devised from some source of radiation."

Besides Port Everglades, there are six RPMs at Port of Miami, four in Palm Beach and two in Panama City. Others are being installed at ports like Tampa and Jacksonville, for a total of 40 in Florida, Mann said.

In addition to seaports, the RPMs are found at such other locations as land border ports of entry, rail crossings and all international mail facilities, including one in Miami. In all, there are more than 1,000 in operation nationwide, he said.

RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

The equipment can detect radiation given off by any radioactive material, Stansbury said. But some non-dangerous materials contain uranium or natural thorium and also give off radiation, including clay kitty litter, ceramic roofing tiles and aircraft engine parts. That can result in false positives.

At Port Everglades, trucks will have to drive less than five miles an hour through monitors, which should take about 10 seconds, he said.

The RPMs should not slow down traffic, said Ellen Kennedy, spokeswoman for the port.

"It’s definitely going to increase the safety factor, in that there will be more thorough [screening] of more containers," she said.

Five of the RPMs at the port will be ‘primary’ for trucks to pass through initially. Another two will be ‘secondary,’ which trucks will have to pass through if the alarm sounds on the primary equipment. Officers in two booths will monitor the equipment, said Susan Stefanello, chief of the anti-terrorist unit for Customs and Border Protection at Port Everglades.

MOBILE DEVICES

In addition to the RPMs at Port Everglades, the port has a set of mobile radiation portal monitors. And every officer carries a hand-held Personal Radiation Detection Device, which shows a radiation reading. If it alarms, officers also have Radiation Isotope Identifier Devices on hand, to identify the source and type of radiation, she said. Scientists are also on call 24 hours a day to help interpret the information.

Yet, layers of security begin even before containers leave their foreign ports. Customs and Border Protection has a 24-hour rule that they be notified of the contents of a container 24 hours before it is loaded onto a ship at its port of origin, Mann said.

"The idea is we want to work as smart and efficiently as possible," he said. "And this is just one more tool that allows us to be more efficient and more effective at protecting everyone who lives in the United States."

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