[ RadSafe ] Progress 'Limited' On Seaport Security

[Gerry Blackwood]

Progress 'Limited' On Seaport SecurityDifficulty With Other Countries Cited
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 4, 2005; Page A17 

A Department of Energy effort to guard against nuclear traffickers by installing radiation detection equipment at foreign seaports has made "limited progress," chiefly because of troubled negotiations with some countries, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

Officials with Energy's Megaports Initiative have completed work at two foreign ports, forged agreements with authorities at five other ports and are in negotiations with 18 others, according to the March report, which was made public yesterday. A government model has ranked 120 foreign seaports according to their attractiveness to potential nuclear smugglers, and this year the DOE expects to add 80 ports to the rankings.

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The National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency within the Energy Department that oversees the two-year-old program, "generally agrees" with the report's findings, wrote Michael C. Kane, the agency's associate administrator for management and administration, in a letter to the GAO.

The goal of the initiative is to bolster counterterrorism efforts by providing foreign customs officials with sophisticated cargo-screening equipment to help detect and deter trafficking in materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons or radiological "dirty" bombs. Cargo containers in the ports are to be screened regardless of whether the United States is their destination.

But the Energy Department has signed agreements to begin work at only two of the 20 highest-priority ports, and authorities in some host countries have been reluctant to join the effort, the GAO reported.

The GAO identifies China as one such country but does not list others.

"Gaining the cooperation of foreign governments has been difficult because some countries have concerns that screening large volumes of [cargo] containers will create delays that could inhibit the flow of commerce at their ports," the report's authors wrote. "In addition, some foreign governments are reluctant to hire the additional customs officials needed to operate the radiation detection equipment DOE provides under the initiative."

The Energy Department expects to install detection equipment in 20 ports by 2010 at a cost of $337 million, a figure the GAO called uncertain. The department had spent $43 million on the program by the end of September, including $14 million on a pilot project in Rotterdam, and on completing installations in Piraeus, Greece. Those two ports ranked lower in priority than many others.

This fiscal year, the Energy Department is scheduled to begin work at Antwerp, Belgium, and complete work at seaports in Colombo, Sri Lanka; Algeciras, Spain; and Freeport, Bahamas. The Energy Department plans to fund training, equipment maintenance and monitoring activities at participating ports for three years, according to the report.

The program complements the Container Security Initiative, run by the Department of Homeland Security, in which U.S. inspectors are stationed in foreign ports to review the cargo manifests of U.S.-bound containers to try to identify those with potentially dangerous materials. About 7 million shipping containers arrive in U.S. ports each year.

In his letter, Kane, the NNSA official, said the agency focused its efforts on high-volume ports early on but most recently has turned its attention to a new list that incorporates threat risk as well as port volume in setting priorities.






"Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality."