II 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 193

To direct the Secretary of Energy to carry out a program to evaluate and 

demonstrate the operation of radiation detection systems for use at 

seaports in the United States. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 17, 2003

Ms. LANDRIEU introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL

To direct the Secretary of Energy to carry out a program 

to evaluate and demonstrate the operation of radiation 

detection systems for use at seaports in the United 

States.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Radiation Detection 

5 for Dirty Bomb Material in Containers and Bulk Cargo 

6 Act of 2003’’. 

7 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

8 Congress finds that—
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•S 193 IS 

1 (1) the possibility of a terrorist group using a 

2 dirty bomb as a weapon against the United States 

3 is 1 of the greatest threats to national security; 

4 (2) it is not difficult to transport dirty bomb 

5 material and conventional explosives into the United 

6 States in a sea freight container or bulk material 

7 cargo; 

8 (3) because of the threat of dirty bombs to na9 tional security and the limitations of the current ra10 diation detection system with respect to detecting 

11 dirty bombs, the Secretary of Energy should carry 

12 out a program to demonstrate the operation of a 

13 large-scale radiation detection system that uses ad14 vanced scanning technologies to enable more sea 

15 freight containers and bulk material cargo to be in16 spected at seaports and places of entry by land; 

17 (4) in selecting a system for demonstration, the 

18 Secretary should give priority to existing radiation 

19 detection technologies that—

20 (A) have proven to be effective nationally 

21 and internationally; 

22 (B) may be quickly implemented; and 

23 (C) are capable of detecting radioactive 

24 sources in sea freight containers and bulk mate25 rial cargo to a reasonable depth; 
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•S 193 IS 

1 (5) the selected system should—

2 (A) screen sea freight containers and bulk 

3 material cargo without, to the maximum extent 

4 practicable, inhibiting the flow of commerce at 

5 seaports and places of entry by land; 

6 (B) operate at a level capable of detecting 

7 a heavily shielded, concealed, radioactive source; 

8 and 

9 (C) have the capability of distinguishing 

10 between—

11 (i) a nonthreatening radioactive 

12 source; and 

13 (ii) a radioactive source that is being 

14 used, or capable of being used, as a dirty 

15 bomb; 

16 (6) any information that is obtained during the 

17 scanning of sea freight containers and bulk material 

18 cargo should be maintained in a central data collec19 tion system to be archived in real-time and made 

20 available to the appropriate Federal, State, and local 

21 agencies for use in tracking and analyzing trends 

22 and alarm conditions and operating radiation detec23 tion systems; 

24 (7) pilot projects for monitoring sea freight con25 tainers and bulk material cargo that are carried out 
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1 under this Act should incorporate information ob2 tained from all other national and international 

3 projects pertaining to inspection of sea containers 

4 and cargo shipped across places of entry by land; 

5 and 

6 (8) in developing the final procedures and pro7 tocols for monitoring sea freight containers and bulk 

8 material cargo for radiation, the Secretary should 

9 ensure that the procedures and protocols—

10 (A) address situations that seaport and 

11 land authorities may confront during the scan12 ning of incoming cargoes; and 

13 (B) provide the seaport and land authori14 ties with the necessary guidance to adequately 

15 respond to the situations. 

16 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

17 In this Act: 

18 (1) PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘program’’ means 

19 the radiation detection system demonstration pro20 gram carried out under section 4. 

21 (2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

22 the Secretary of Energy. 

23 (3) SYSTEM.—The term ‘‘system’’ means a ra24 diation detection system.
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1 SEC. 4. RADIATION DETECTION SYSTEM DEMONSTRATION 

2 PROGRAM. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry out a 

4 program to—

5 (1) maintain and expand ongoing seaport and 

6 land radiation detection system projects; 

7 (2) use existing laboratory relationships and ex8 pertise in large-scale radiation monitoring systems; 

9 (3) evaluate radiation detection systems for use 

10 at seaports and places of entry by land in the United 

11 States; and 

12 (4) select at least 1 system for demonstration 

13 at a seaport and 1 system for demonstration at a 

14 place of entry by land. 

15 (b) EVALUATION OF SYSTEMS.—

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall conduct 

17 an evaluation of existing state-of-the-art systems 

18 that provide the highest degree of detection capa19 bility for radioactive sources that may be hidden in 

20 sea freight containers or cargo crossing land bor21 ders. 

22 (2) TECHNOLOGY.—The Secretary shall empha23 size the rapid development of existing technology 

24 and systems on completion of the evaluation. 

25 (c) SELECTION OF SYSTEM FOR DEMONSTRATION.—
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•S 193 IS 

1 (1) IN GENERAL.—A system selected by the 

2 Secretary—

3 (A) may include hardware components 

4 such as detectors, instrumentation, and commu5 nication hardware; and 

6 (B) shall include—

7 (i) integration of the hardware; 

8 (ii) reporting procedures and proto9 cols; and 

10 (iii) coordination for decisionmaking, 

11 databases, and related software develop12 ments. 

13 (2) PROXIMITY TO MATERIAL.—In selecting a 

14 system for demonstration, the Secretary shall—

15 (A) take into consideration that it is crit16 ical that the system be located as close as pos17 sible to the material to be scanned; and 

18 (B) select a system that allows for close 

19 proximity. 

20 (3) TECHNOLOGY FIELD OPERATIONAL TIME.—

21 The Secretary shall select for demonstration a sys22 tem that uses a technology that has proven field 

23 operational time. 

24 (d) DEMONSTRATION.—
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•S 193 IS 

1 (1) USE OF KNOWLEDGE GAINED FROM PRE2 VIOUS STUDY.—In the demonstration phase of the 

3 program, the Secretary shall—

4 (A) incorporate knowledge gained from the 

5 study conducted at Port of New Orleans before 

6 the date of enactment of this Act; and 

7 (B) expand on that knowledge to account 

8 for material shipped in containers. 

9 (2) DURATION.—The demonstration phase of 

10 the program shall be completed not later than 2 

11 years after the date on which funding is made avail12 able for the program. 

13 (3) FUTURE NEEDS.—As part of the dem14 onstration phase, the Secretary shall—

15 (A) identify needs for future research and 

16 improvement for continued development of 

17 emerging systems; and 

18 (B) make Federal, State, and local agen19 cies with responsibilities relating to seaport and 

20 land authorities aware of those needs. 

21 (e) REQUIREMENTS.—

22 (1) DATA.—Regardless of the operational con23 dition of a system, all data detected by the system 

24 shall be collected, displayed, and archived. 
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1 (2) DURABILITY.—A system shall be capable of 

2 withstanding critical acceleration caused by severe 

3 impacts and rough handling, that are attendant to 

4 the monitoring of containers and bulk material being 

5 unloaded from a ship. 

6 (3) RADIATION DETECTED.—A system shall be 

7 capable of detecting gammas and neutrons emitted 

8 by isotopes that could be used to construct a dirty 

9 bomb, including cobalt-60, cesium-137, iridium-192, 

10 iodine-131, and americium-241/beryllium. 

11 (4) SYSTEM OPERATION.—The operation of a 

12 system shall be fully automatic. 

13 (5) DETECTION TIME.—A system shall be capa14 ble of detecting radiation in a container that will not 

15 significantly inhibit the flow of commerce. 

16 (6) BACKGROUND.—A system shall be sensitive 

17 to fluctuations in background levels. 

18 SEC. 5. PROCEDURES AND PROTOCOLS FOR DETECTION 

19 AND REPORTING. 

20 In connection with the program, the Secretary shall 

21 develop standard procedures and protocols for detection 

22 and reporting of data collected from radiation collection 

23 systems to allow synchronization of technical approaches 

24 to detection and harmonize coordination efforts among 

25 agencies. 
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1 SEC. 6. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall develop a na3 tional technical assistance program to share and propa4 gate the experiences gained in conducting the program. 

5 (b) STAKEHOLDERS.—In carrying out subsection (a), 

6 the Secretary shall solicit the views of stakeholders (in7 cluding members of the National Maritime Security Advi8 sory Committee, local port authorities, the Conference of 

9 Radiation Control Program Directors, Inc., and the 

10 Health Physics Society) to encourage the greatest level of 

11 participation in the development of a national program of 

12 radiation detection systems. 

13 SEC. 7. INTERNSHIPS. 

14 In connection with the program, the Secretary shall 

15 provide student internships to universities in States with 

16 significant seaports that focus on academic programs per17 taining to radiation detection and radiation health physics. 

18 SEC. 8. REPORT. 

19 At the conclusion of the program, the Secretary shall 

20 submit to Congress a report that describes the results of 

21 the program. 

22 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

23 There are authorized to be appropriated for each of 

24 fiscal years 2004 through 2007 such sums as are nec25 essary to carry out this Act.

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