CBP launches air cargo radiation detection program

Dulles International Airport in Virginia earlier this month became the first airport at which U.S. Customs and Border Protection has deployed a radiation portal monitor to test for radiation on all inbound air cargo.

Thomas Winkowski, assistant commissioner for field operations, made the announcement at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Thursday.

CBP has 1,120 drive-through radiation portal monitors (RPM) operational at sea and land border ports of entry, as well as mail facilities. Cargo arriving at the 22 largest U.S. seaports, representing 98 percent of all container shipments, passes through the detection machines before leaving the port. Also, 94 percent of trucks arriving through northern border ports and all trucks at the southern border pass through the RPMs.

CBP is now shifting its focus to the international air cargo environment and plans to deploy radiation detection systems at 30 airports by 2014, covering 99 percent of all air cargo entering the United States, Winkowski said.

The agency plans to next deploy RPMs to airports in Charlotte, N.C., Seattle, and Minneapolis-St. Paul in 2009, he said after the hearing. The challenge to lay out the equipment and set up inspection procedures will be greater in major cargo airports in Los Angeles and New York, he said. Airports pose logistical issues because they are open environments compared to ports in which truck traffic is funneled through entry and exit gates.

The Dulles RPM is a fixed installation, but other airports may require a combination of fixed and mobile equipment, he said. 

Source: American Shipper