False Alarms Plague Port Anti-Nuke System

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - The post-Sept. 11 security blanket designed to keep nuclear material out of U.S. ports still has plenty of holes, including scores of false alarms from radiation detectors, scientists told Congress on Tuesday.


Port Authority of New York and New Jersey security manager Bethann Rooney said the facility receives "about 150 alarms a day" from the 22 radiation portal monitors at the site. That's more than 10 times the number of false alarms originally expected.

Rooney was among a handful of experts who testified before a House Homeland Security subcommittee reviewing the nation's anti-nuke efforts.

Federal agents at Rooney's facilities use radiation detectors on about 45 percent of containers, and they plan to raise that to 85 percent at the end of the year after receiving additional detectors.

~snip~
more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050621/ap_on_go_co/nuclear_detectors;_

[Rick Myers]

1. That makes me feel safe...

Yikes! At that rate, you can be sure they just ignore 90% of them...

[obxhead]

3. I heard someone on NPR

a couple of days ago that works at a port that has these. He said they turn the machines off most of the time. Too many false alarms that back up the traffic.

[Massacure]

2. I hear kitty litter sets off the radiation detectors.

[KT2000]

4. they approved radioactive waste

to be used in consumer goods so the alarms are probably not false at all.
I would love to see someone with a geiger counter walk the aisles of Wal-Mart!

[Mnemosyne]

5. I don't know why, but something just reeks to me

on this one. Why the report now when chimpy's ratings are so low and the DSM's have come out.

Or maybe I'm just paranoid.:shrug:

:kick:

[truthisfreedom]

6. at least they have the equipment set up. i'd rather see them having too

many false alarms than no measurement going on.

[Bridget Burke]

7. But only 45% of cargo is checked at all.

According to the article. And the number of "false positives" tends ot make people ignore the alarms.

The Ship Channel winds past over a hundred petrochemical plants to the Port of Houston--not far from downtown. We're the country's biggest port for foreign shipping--much of it in containers. Disasters are quite possible--even without nukes.