JULY 2016 Part B.Pdf
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Page | 1 CBRNE-TERRORISM NEWSLETTER – July 2016 www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com Page | 2 CBRNE-TERRORISM NEWSLETTER – July 2016 Scanners more rapidly and accurately identify radioactive materials at U.S. borders, events By Rob Matheson Source: http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20160623-scanners-more-rapidly-and-accurately- identify-radioactive-materials-at-u-s-borders-events June 23 – In response to the terrorist attacks of inside containers. Denser objects, which could September 11, 2001, the U.S. government harbor nuclear threats or contraband, are founded the Department of Homeland Security further investigated by opening the container. (DHS) to prevent terrorist attacks on American Opening and inspecting each suspicious soil. Among other things, the DHS increased container can take hours and could screening of cargo coming into the country. be dangerous. At the same time at MIT, the terrorist attacks Passport’s cargo scanners, on the other hand, gave rise to a company dedicated to helping offer precision scanning in minutes, without DHS — and, ultimately, other governments and ever opening a container, says Bertozzi, now organizations worldwide — better detect Passport’s scientific advisor and a member of nuclear and other threats at borders its board of directors. “In about 30 seconds, we and seaports. can scan a container and provide a three- Launched in 2002, Passport Systems dimensional map of [the materials inside the developed a scanner, backed by decades of cargo]. This information clears the container or MIT research, that can automatically alerts you to a region that needs to be “fingerprint” radioactive or other suspicious examined more carefully. In another 15 material through a truck, cargo container, or seconds, our scanner will tell you whether other concealed package, and alert there’s an actinide there. In another half a authorities immediately. minute, we can tell you what actinide it is, and Today, Passport — co-founded by MIT physics if it’s a bomb,” he says. professor emeritus William Bertozzi — has two Passport’s handheld system, called commercial scanners: the cargo scanner, a SmartShield, is a network of small gamma- facility used at borders and seaports; and a radiation detectors, about the size of a deck of wireless radiation-monitoring system used at, cards, that collects radiation data in real-time for example, public events. and wirelessly connects to smartphones. Passport’s cargo scanner, called SmartScan, Typically, law enforcement and first responders inspects trucks carrying cargo and wear the detectors on their belts and carry the automatically identifies any radioactive material phones, while walking around and collecting or “actinides” (radioactive elements) that may data on background radiation. If a detector signal a dirty bomb, weapon of mass identifies gamma radiation, it sends an alert to destruction, or explosive. The scanner can also all other smartphones in the network, as well catch contraband such as drugs, tobacco, and as a central command station, and displays the firearms. This year, under a contract issued by GPS coordinates to first responders. DHS’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, SmartShield was trialed at last year’s NASCAR Passport deployed its first SmartScan race in New Hampshire, this year’s NCAA Final inspection facility at the Port of Boston’s Four Men’s Basketball Championship in Texas, and other major events in the nation. “Fingerprinting” actinides Passport’s SmartScan facility at the Port of Boston is a tunnel about 176 feet long, resembling a drive-through car wash. Trucks carrying land and sea cargo containers are pulled through slowly on a conveyer belt, and Conley Container Terminal. scanned by a massive scanner attached to the Cargo scanning today relies primarily on high- tunnel’s entrance. This scanner powered X-rays, which provide a two- combines conventional high-resolution dimensional projection of shapes of objects X-rays and other passive radiation www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com Page | 3 CBRNE-TERRORISM NEWSLETTER – July 2016 detection methods with scanning techniques photon signals to determine any anomalies: pioneered by Bertozzi at the MIT Laboratory for Photon signals for high-Z materials such as Nuclear Science and by Passport. actinides, for instance, are about 10 times As a truck passes through the scanner, higher than signals from low-Z materials such Passport’s custom EZ 3-D scanning method as common metals. “Because these photon generates three-dimensional images of a signals are huge and prolific, we can tell you material based on the effective atomic number where in the container you have materials that — called “effective Z” — which could indicate are high effective Z,” Bertozzi says. explosives. To do so, an electron beam But some of these signals are difficult to produces photons that shoot into the material. differentiate, so, if suspicious materials The electrons of atoms in the material scatter are present, the system automatically these photons. The system measures the conducts refined, secondary scans. www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com Page | 4 CBRNE-TERRORISM NEWSLETTER – July 2016 The first technique is Prompt Neutrons from successful tests, the company decided the Photofission (PNPF), developed by Bertozzi technology was too expensive to scale, at MIT in the 1960s. A photon beam causes the especially since airplane bombings weren’t actinide nuclei in the material to fission and necessarily considered a major threat. emit neutrons, which are measured. If the “But then the world changed with 9/11,” neutrons are produced over a certain threshold Ledoux says. of energy, they’re from an actinide. Then the Suddenly, the newly minted DHS wanted all system uses another technique developed by baggage at airports and every cargo unit at the Bertozzi at MIT, called nuclear resonance U.S. border scanned for explosives. X-rays and fluorescence (NRF), where the photon beam CT scans were used for luggage, but no quick, excites the nuclei, which emit gamma rays at accurate scanning techniques existed for cargo distinct energy levels. Measuring those energy containers. “It’s difficult to detect explosives in levels gives the “fingerprint” of the actinide. a small package. Imagine having a 40-foot “We can tell you if it’s, say, uranium-235, container filled with thousands of pounds of uranium-238, oxygen-17, or carbon-12, things, whipping through the supply chain,” because they all have different signals,” Ledoux says. Bertozzi says. Seeing that the world was ripe for NRF-based Drugs and alcohol have specific “fingerprints” scanners, Bertozzi launched Passport with too, as do materials such as salt and chlorine, friend and MIT Sloan School of Management so the scanner is helpful for detecting alumnus Gordon Baty ’61, SM ’63, PhD ’67, contraband. A scanner, for instance, could who is now chair of Passport’s board of detect chlorine, sometimes used to make directors. They pulled in Ledoux as CEO and methamphetamine, in a truck full of clothing. set up shop in Ledoux’s home office. Now, the United Kingdom is seeking the However, although they could prove the systems to look for items such as untaxed technology theoretically, there was nowhere to tobacco being smuggled across the border, test it on a large scale. Then one day Ledoux while other countries are looking for the was on MIT’s campus, speaking with a fellow systems to scan for drugs and alcohol. “It alum about Passport’s testing issues, when the serves a security need, but it also satisfies alum pointed to MIT’s High Voltage Research general customs needs,” says Passport’s CEO, Laboratory, which was supposedly shut down. president, and co-founder Robert Ledoux ’78, “We were literally right across the street,” PhD ’81, who taught physics at MIT until 1990. Ledoux says. “So we walked over and rang “That’s made it commercially viable.” the doorbell.” Passport’s SmartShield detectors use standard Turns out, the MIT facility was still in use. “It photon-detection technology to detect gamma became only the third place in the country that rays. But the innovation comes from the we could do the experiments,” Bertozzi says. network, which offers numerous benefits, “The world came together at this small lab on Ledoux says. Working together, the scanners MIT’s campus,” Ledoux adds. can quickly triangulate the location of a threat. Throughout the mid-2000s at MIT, a small Constantly updated radiation data, from team including Bertozzi and Ledoux recorded multiple detectors being carried around an the unique signals of all actinides. From there, area, also makes the system as a whole more the project grew steadily: In 2007 and 2008, sensitive. “With each passing sweep, it can Passport received DHS contracts to test a better separate naturally occurring radiation in, proof of concept of their cargo scanner, at their say, building materials from hazardous nuclear headquarters in Billerica. In 2009, Passport materials,” Ledoux says. received a DHS contract to build their SmartScan system. Coming together at MIT The company’s latest DHS contract, issued in Passport’s story starts in the mid-1990s, when 2013, is for building a system that fuses Bertozzi tried bringing his MIT-invented NRF gamma radiation-detection data with video, to scanning technology to a company that was track radiation in vehicles traveling at trying to commercialize baggage-scanning highway speeds. technologies in U.S. airports. Despite www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com Page | 5 CBRNE-TERRORISM NEWSLETTER – July 2016 Islamic State And The Threat Of WMDs By David Patrikarakos Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/islamic-state-threat-of-wmd/27828778.html The gravest threat would come if IS were able could theoretically make a small nuclear bomb to get its hands on nuclear materials. The with further enrichment -- or existing weapons- greatest danger comes from the most unstable grade plutonium, from which it could do the countries with the largest amounts of same.