Bad news all around for DHS cargo technology programs.

• Author: Magnison, Stew
• Position: SECURITYBEAT - Department of Homeland Security

* The Department of Homeland Security's advanced radiation detection portal monitor program since 2005 has been attempting to come up with a better way to detect nuclear material hidden in shipping containers.

Five years of effort has resulted in scanners that are only "marginally" better than the first-generation monitors that were infamous for setting off numerous false alarms, said Gene Aloise, director of natural resources and environment at the Government Accountability Office.

The GAO is now questioning "whether the benefits of the new portal monitors justify the high cost," Aloise said.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, the DHS agency responsible for the program, has endured criticism from GAO for years over the rigor of its testing procedures. Aloise told the House Committee on Science and Technology's subcommittee on investigations and oversight that these testing procedures had improved.

What the tests showed, however, was that the new portals were not performing significantly better than the equipment currently in place.

Congress has required that the DHS secretary certify that the monitors provide "a significant increase in operational effectiveness" before full-scale procurement begins.

The problem continues to be false alarms. The first generation monitors were sharply criticized for detecting minuscule amounts of harmless radiation found in such items as kitty litter, bathroom tiles and bananas, July 2009 testing showed that nuclear material that was shielded required the machines to be calibrated at higher levels. But these...