STAFFORD, Va.–ICx Technologies [ICXT] has been testing its new comprehensive facility security solution at the Albuquerque International Sunport airport in New Mexico for the past two months, demonstrating that the system can track the spread of a tracer material used to simulate a chemical or biological threat, a company official tells TR2.
ThreatSense is a comprehensive chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear (CBRN) system that also includes a vulnerability assessment, solution design, installation, network monitoring and alert responses for critical infrastructure protection. The system can also enhance security management by controlling a facility’s heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) to minimize the damage from the release of a potentially dangerous substance, says Chuck Call, the manager of ThreatSense at ICx.
In the testing at the airport, the ThreatSense system shows that over a two hour period the tracer material spreads throughout most of the facility. The tracer materials typically spread via the HVAC system and by people, Call says.
ICx is able to monitor the spread of the release via a network of sensors installed in various parts of the airport and HVAC system. The sensor network and security management system allow any facility to try and isolate a contaminated area and then use the HVAC system to purge the area and draw in clean air, Call says.
In the airport tests limiting the spread of a toxic agent reduces the number of people exposed as well as the spread throughout an airport and the aviation system, saving lives and possibly allowing faster restoration of operations at the target facility.
In the ongoing airport pilot ThreatSense has been able to show it can detect the release of a potential harmful substance within an hour, making it a potential adjunct to the next-generation of BioWatch, Call says. “Within an hour you know something has happened and its PCR (polymerase chain reaction) positive,” he says. Ultimately a laboratory will make the final call on the public health risk, he adds.
ICx says the pilot effort is unique in that it “demonstrates a critical infrastructure protection capability that otherwise does not exist today.”
For the Albuquerque testing ICx is using several sets of its sensors. On top of the building at the air intakes and in some other locations the company has coupled IBAC early warning bio-aerosol sensors with BioXC for bio-threat sampling.
Inside the facility AirSentinel sensors are used for continuous biological air monitoring as a trigger for BioXC sensors. The BioXCs are integrated with Cepheid‘s [CPHD] GeneXpert PCR-based pathogen identification system for presumptive confirmation tests in the field for all Tier 1 alerts. The GeneXpert sensors are also used as part of Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] Biohazard Detection System in certain U.S. postal facilities.
So far ICx has done 50 releases of tracer materials to gather data at the airport test, Call says. All the releases are detectable within several minutes, ICx says. The study is being funded by the city of Albuquerque, the state of New Mexico and ICx.
While the testing in Albuquerque has focused on monitoring and tracking of biological threats, ThreatSense permits an “a-la-carte” selection of CBRN sensors to allow a facility to create a solution based on the threat scenarios it faces.
“From chemical contaminants to biological agents to radioactive sources and dirty bombs-a broad range of threats are quickly identified with an extremely low level of false- positive or negative alarms,” Call said in March with the release of ThreatSense.
ICx’ sensors will also be used in an upcoming pilot test being managed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate under the Detect to Protect program. DHS is purchasing the sensors for under $1 million and will do its own integration, Call says.