LA sea port gets added scanner security | 06.09.2005 | 09:10:34 | Views: 4574 | ID: June 9 '05: Large ports in the US have to tackle the problem of allowing for the relatively free-flow of goods in and out of their docks, while at the same time making sure the cargo is not harmful. The Department of Homeland Security announced that new plans to have monitoring systems built in country's two busiest seaports will be finished by the end of the year. Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a press release by the department that the new technology will allow workers at the ports to "screen every vehicle and container entering the nation's busiest seaports for nuclear and radiological materials." Officials hope that added security measures in other countries where the cargo is loaded into the containers, will further reduce the risk of a group or individual terrorist putting a nuclear device or a bomb filled with deadly chemicals into the cargo. Last year alone, more than 4.3 million foreign cargo containers were processed in LA and Long Beach - 44 percent of all the sea-bound cargo headed to the US. The new scanners will include five mobile gamma-ray and two X-Ray scanners, personal radiation detectors, and isotope identification devices. According to the DHS release, "These systems do not emit radiation but are capable of detecting various types of radiation emanating from nuclear devices, dirty bombs, special nuclear materials, natural sources, and isotopes commonly used in medicine and industry."
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