| A new radiation detector that could improve the screening of U.S.-bound cargo containers for nuclear weapons will undergo full-scale testing in the Port of Oakland, it was reported Friday.
The device screens cargo for radiological materials as it is loaded and unloaded, reducing the need to place detectors on busy docks and wharves where they can complicate harbor operations.
San Fransisco-based VeriTainer Corp. will equip the Matson Navigation Co. terminal with scanners that attach to the hoisting mechanism of towering cranes that serve container ships, according to the Los Angeles Times.
If successful and widely applied, the detectors will give domestic and foreign ports the potential to scan virtually every container arriving in the United States, VeriTainer executives were quoted as saying.
At present, it take days, even weeks to check shipping containers arriving in the U.S. for nuclear materials as they leave port terminals by truck after they are unloaded.
At foreign ports, many containers aren't screened for radiation before they leave for the U.S., creating a potential opening for terrorists to smuggle in weapons, said the paper.
"The key to our technology is that we are in the workflow," said VeriTainer Chief Executive John Alioto. "Our goal is to install detectors around the world, making every container crane a security checkpoint."
Unlike current scanners, the device can detect shielding used to conceal nuclear materials and determine if the emissions are a type associated with radiological weapons, which would reduce false alarms, developers say. More than 1 percent of cargo - including bananas, kitty litter, ceramics and building materials -naturally emits radiation.
The report said the equivalent of 7 million 40-foot cargo containers arrive in the U.S. every year from foreign ports. Almost half are unloaded in Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, the largest harbor complex in the nation. There are about 2,500 large port cranes worldwide.
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