New technologies target terrorist, suicide bombs.

• Author: Pappalardo, Joe
• Position: Up Front

The Department of Homeland Security is asking industry and academia to apply an array of mature and developing sciences to defeat suicide, truck bombs and attacks on public transportation.

Systems likely to be proposed include scanners that can look inside sealed containers, new building designs, video-analysis software, nano-electric detectors and a host of mobile electromagnetic sensor arrays.

In June, the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) sponsored a two-day workshop to provide guidelines to contractors seeking to compete for upcoming contract awards.

A solicitation for industry bids is expected in upcoming months, said a DHS spokesman. The plan is to award multiple contracts.

"It's time to move on to new technologies," said Susan Hallowell, technical director of the Transportation Security Laboratory.

Among the technologies being evaluated are advanced scanners to detect truck bombs. One system would rely on neutron analysis to inspect the cargo of sealed containers. It would beam neutrons through container walls to bounce off targets inside, and measure the reflected gamma wave signatures to identify contents. The system does not use a radioactive neutron generator, preventing the device from possibly becoming its own 'dirty bomb' if destroyed by an explosion.

Scores of companies are pitching this form of technology for land mine and port-of-entry screening. Sue Systems Inc., of Poway, Calif., claims that a vehicle-based system can identify 1 kilogram of explosives on the move, at 1.5 meters. It would detect 100 kilograms of explosives at 3 meters.

A pilot program at the Ysleta Border Station in El Paso, Texas, will test a truck screening system designed to inspect containers. The facility is scheduled to start inspecting 10 to 15 trucks a day in September.

HiEnergy Technologies Inc. of Irvine, Calif., has created a variation of the neutron system. It successfully measured 30 or more grams of explosives in less than half a minute in open-air tests at the Navy's range at Indian Head, Md., and during testing with the Los Angeles bomb squad. The company anticipates a trial run at Madrid's airport parking lot in Spain later this year. The system uses a sensor attached to a van to scan car trunks with a pulsed, high-energy neutron accelerator.

Other companies are promoting more familiar methods, such as X-ray machines. High-energy X-rays, like those developed at Smith's Detection N.A., are now being mounted on...