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EXCLUSIVE REPORTS
Big Apple could be protected by NM device
February 27, 2004 by Clay Holtzman
An Albuquerque research and engineering company could be one step closer to sealing a deal to bring its mobile radiation alert system to New York and New Jersey state agencies by the end of this year.
Scientists from Applied Research Associates Inc. (ARA) met with a dual-state regional steering committee on Monday, Feb. 23, on Staten Island to give a brief, non-field demonstration of the company's MobileRad, a mobile radiation detection system capable of scanning moving vehicles for radiated materials that could be used in an unconventional nuclear weapon or dirty bomb.
Randy Jones, principal scientist and head of ARA's radiation sensor research team, says the meeting with committee members went "very well" and he anticipates the committee or its agencies to place product orders.
"As a result of all this, I feel we're going to get a quantity of the MobileRad units [ordered]," Jones says, while noting the deal is far from done.
The meeting and brief demo was the fourth presentation by ARA to the steering committee or one of its agencies. The regional steering committee represents New York and New Jersey emergency responder agencies, like police and fire stations, as well as the dual-state port authority.
Brian Lacey, general manager of operations development in the Office of Emergency Management at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, says ARA is on the "short list" of companies being examined by the regional steering committee. He said the mobile system probably has more potential for state and city police agencies and less for the port authority as it monitors and secures fixed facilities like bridges, tunnels, airports and up to Sept. 11, 2001, the World Trade Center.
New York City and New Jersey, with their dense populations and key transportation and commuter hubs, have been identified as key areas of the country to guard against possible future terror attacks.
Lacey says the MobileRad unit "has promise and is of interest." The MobileRad detection and notification system consists of a sensor node and a wireless command center. The sensor node, filled with sodium iodide, a material capable of detecting gamma rays emitted from radiated material, fits inside a housing comparable to a medium size suitcase. It is directed at a target area, usually a road or highway, and monitors that area for radioactive isotopes emitted from vehicles passing by at up to highway speeds.
That information is analyzed for isotope identification and then instantaneously relayed, via radio signal, to the node's command center, which displays the information to an operator who monitors it from a mobile location or a fixed response headquarters, typically a 911 dispatch center.
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