[ RadSafe ] WMD Sensors Working, U.S. Security Officials Say

[Gerry Blackwood]

We've had no false positives at any time" 
 Thats the first bad sign......Dam.... If BS was a power source DHS would need NRC Permitting............




 WMD Sensors Working, U.S. Security Officials Say


http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2005_3_3.html#172EF5FE



Sensors Working, U.S. Security Officials Say

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON - WMD sensors deployed in the United States in the wake of the
Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks are functioning correctly, Homeland
Security Department officials said yesterday (see GSN
a9c%2Dc7c279c4fb2c.html> , Feb. 11).

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner told a Senate
subcommittee that monitors at U.S. ports have detected radiation more than
10,000 times, while Homeland Security science chief Charles McQueary praised
the performance of detectors used in cities around the country under the
federal Biowatch program.

Portal-style monitors at U.S. ports have registered "over 10,000 radiation
hits," Bonner told the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.
In all cases, he said, the monitors detected radiation from natural sources
or other lawfully shipped materials, such as decorative tiles containing
radioactive thorium.

Bonner's agency has installed about 400 detectors at U.S. ports and,
according to a White House budget summary, requested $125 million for fiscal
2006 to purchase additional systems.

Biowatch sensors, which are deployed in major cities to check the air for
the presence of biological agents, have collected more than 2 million
samples to date, McQueary said at a conference organized here by consulting
firm Equity International's Center for Homeland and Global Security.

"We've had no false positives at any time. . We've actually had some
detections, but we've had no false positives," McQueary said without
elaborating on what was detected. Avoiding false readings is important, he
said, because "the public will not sit still for a large number of false
positives."

McQueary called on citizens to remain vigilant to supplement technological
capabilities.

"Each and every human being in this country represents a sensor, a data
processor and a communication channel," he said.

The Homeland Security undersecretary said his Science and Technology
Directorate is spending about one-third of its fiscal 2005 funds on
biological threats, since "time is of the essence in that area." Among the
special focuses of coming directorate research efforts are defending against
coordinated biological attacks in different parts of the country, diseases
that can spread from animals to humans and antibiotic-resistant bacteria,
McQueary said.

Fiscal 2006, McQueary said, is set to bring an increase in spending on
technology to defend against radiological and nuclear threats, since "there
is . a great deal more recognition that the country needs to move in this
particular area."








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