Equipment Spots Nuclear Materials in Security Test

The Department of Homeland Security is testing new equipment designed to sniff out nuclear materials on cars and trucks boarding a ferry in Texas – the first test of the new device in a maritime setting.

In an article in the Houston Chronicle, Harvey Rice says the transportable radiation monitoring system, or TRMS, began screening cars last week entering the ferry from Galveston Island as part of an eight-day trial.

The equipment is in two trailers and this is the first test on vehicles boarding a vessel. Rice says six TSA employees from Hobby Airport were trained on using the machine last week and are now being tested by TSA vehicles carrying a small amount of radioactive material.

“So far screeners have detected the material in the test vehicles every time,” Rice reports. “The trailers are set up in the grass medians at the ferry entrance so that cars and trucks must pass between them. The system is passive, meaning it detects radiation without emitting signals or harmful rays.”

The TRMS experimental model, which costs about $150,000, is so sensitive that it can detect the radiation in someone who has been injected with radioactive dye for a medical procedure two weeks after the injection, Rice adds.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5598533.html