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, according to the new director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO).
Describing his vision for interior enforcement, Warren Stern says 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 tells 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 Secure 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…of police officers do have chirpers and handheld devices so it is not an outlandish concept,” Stern says. “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 late last month 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.”
DNDO has done other pilot projects to explore interior enforcement, such as the multi-state Southeast Transportation Corridor Pilot. In addition, the agency works with the Transportation Security Administration’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams to equip them with man-portable radiological and nuclear detection systems. VIPR teams have conducted over 1,200 operations using the equipment, Stern says. TSA uses VIPR teams to augment security at various transportation venues nationwide.
Stern says 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 says. Previously the agency didn’t provide any funding to vendors for the testing. So far two firms have signed up for the program, he adds.
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. Stern wants more emphasis put on this plan as a way to guide future deployments of radiation detection technology.
“The GNDA Strategic Plan will be the first important step to define and form the GNDA in the future, and will include a description, a vision statement, and time-phased goals, objectives, and performance metrics,” Stern says in his prepared testimony. “The strategic plan will articulate what the GNDA must accomplish and outline its development and implementation.”
Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Jane Holl Lute last month said the GNDA Strategic Plan would include the vision, goals, objectives and performance metrics for the architecture and be followed later by an implementation plan that includes specifics such as gaps, acquisition plans and other elements to put the plan into effect.
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 says that DNDO is analyzing the program to decide how to proceed moving forward. That evaluation will conclude during FY ’11, he said. During 2011 DNDO will actively support a regional full-scale exercise of STC, he adds.
ASP, CAARS Updates
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 says. But operational and field validation testing will resume this month and must be successful before determining if the program can proceed to a decision about production and deployment, he says.
Once field testing is completed, a cost-benefit analysis will be finalized and the program will go to the DHS Acquisition Review Board for a decision on whether to recommend to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that ASP be certified to enter production. The testing and decision-making process will be done by the end of FY ’11, Stern says.
Regarding the Cargo Advanced Automated Radiography System (CAARS), Stern says 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 says. The agency will continue to test commercial non-intrusive imaging systems for application in the CAARS mission, he adds.
How relevant CAARS technologies are used going forward will await a final program report later this year, he says.