DHS to test intermodal nuke detection options at Tacoma
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Friday it will set up a test center at the Port of Tacoma in Washington to evaluate technology and operations methods for detecting radiation in sea containers that travel inland by intermodal rail.
The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office plans to study the feasibility of scanning cargo on the dock, during transport to the rail yard, entering the rail yard, in the container storage stack, during train assembly and as the train leaves the port.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a DHS component agency, uses hundreds of drive-through radiation portal monitors (RPM) at port of entry to check for the presence of radiation or nuclear materials in truck trailers and containers. CBP measures radiation levels in 89 percent of ocean cargo containers and plans to check 98 percent of all cargo at the nation’s 22 major ports by the end of the year. The detection process typically occurs near the outbound gate as trucks prepare to exit the terminal with the container.
But monitoring radiation in containers that move out of the port via rail without disrupting operations poses a much greater challenge for technical and logistical reasons. The trucking environment presents a natural chokepoint in which to set up the roadside panels that doesn’t exist in rail yards. Until now, DHS has ruled out putting radiation detection arches over the tracks because the high level of nuisance alarms from the first-generation machines would cripple train operations because there is no spillover space, unlike for trucks that can be pulled over to a secondary staging area. CBP discovered that alarms would be frequent because there is too much naturally occurring radiation in rail systems due to the amount of ore they carry.
The work-around strategy involves monitoring radiation levels as terminal tractors haul containers to the rail yard for lifting onto rail cars. The system is in place in a few ports, such as Los Angeles and Long Beach. The open layout requires CBP to work with terminal operators to set up routes for funneling yard tractors through designated lanes where mobile or fixed flat-panel detection arrays are situated.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach solution works fine for terminals with wheeled operations, but CBP is still trying to develop a radiation detection solution for other ports, like Tacoma and New Jersey, which use straddle carriers to lift containers and move them about the terminal. More than 70 percent of inbound containers at Tacoma depart by rail. A straddle carrier is a specialized vehicle that lifts containers on and off truck chassis and rail cars using an overhead crane and drives with the container suspended high within its frame. The Department of Energy has tested a modified straddle carrier with built-in RPM panels at Port Freeport, Bahamas. The unit, which is operated under contract by Hutchison Port Holdings, runs back and forth over blocks of containers checking for radiation emissions.