NTS to test nuclear detection devices

Jeff Donaldson

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 9:25 a.m.

Detection devices that pick up potential nuclear threats from terrorists will be tested at a new facility at the Nevada Test Site before being installed at the nation's border and airport checkpoints, federal officials said Wednesday.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the National Nuclear Security Administration broke ground on a $35 million facility that will be located in the heart of the nation's nuclear testing grounds.

Coined the Radiological-Nuclear Countermeasures Test and Evaluation Complex, or Rad-NucCTEC, the facility is designed to test detection devices built by at least 10 international companies vying for a bid, which is expected to be awarded next year.

The company that wins the bid will provide more than 2,000 devices for more than 350 ports of entry throughout the United States. The systems can detect uranium, plutonium or other radiological materials terrorists might try to bring into the country in trucks or luggage.

"The Nevada Testing Site is now the front line in the battle to protect the country from terrorist threats," said Jerry Paul, principal deputy administrator of the Nuclear Security Administration, addressing those attending the groundbreaking. The event took place in the shadows of the test site's nuclear storage facility, which will provide the materials used for testing.

The Test Site no longer conducts nuclear weapons experiments, but scientists still use radiological materials to maintain nuclear stockpiles. The presence of those materials -- along with the remoteness of the location -- makes the Test Site an ideal place for the new facility, Paul said.

Although the new facility won't be operational until 2007, a temporary site has been installed along a quarter-mile stretch of asphalt at the Test Site. The roadway is lined on both sides with 15-foot tall yellow steel towers, each equipped with one of 10 detection systems.

Officials with Bechtel Nevada, the Test Site's management company, demonstrated the systems by driving vehicles through the barriers. The trucks contained different natural materials, such as cat litter, fertilizer and other substances that can throw off current detection devices.

Bechtel and the Nuclear Security Administration will begin testing actual plutonium and uranium on the systems during an eight-week period in August, said Michael Carter, chief scientist in the newly formed Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, located within the Department of Homeland Security.

"This facility will provide definitive ground truth" about the threats and capabilities of terrorists, Carter said.

President Bush's war on terrorism in Iraq has intensified concerns that weapons of mass destruction -- to include radiological materials -- could find their way into the United States.

The new facility, which has portals, or lanes for trucks to pass through -- or luggage to pass through at airports -- will pave the way for tighter security measures at those checkpoints, officials said.

Carter said the nuclear threat has always been considered a "highly unlikely" scenario, but that Homeland Security officials must consider the extremes some terrorists might go to.

"We'll be deploying these systems with people who, if they're lucky, will never see a nuclear weapon, but we have to remain vigilant," Carter said.

The National Nuclear Security Administration already conducts first response training at the Test Site for emergency officials who are trained in handling radiological threats. To date, more than 25,000 people have been trained at the top secret area.

The first of the new devices are expected to be in use at border checkpoints in June 2006.