According to IAEA, between 1993 and 2006, there were 1,080 confirmed incidents of illicit trafficking and unauthorized activities involving nuclear and radiological materials worldwide. Eighteen of these cases involved weapons-usable material—plutonium and highly enriched uranium—that could be used to produce a nuclear weapon. IAEA also reported that 124 cases involved materials that could be used to produce a device that uses conventional explosives with radioactive material (known as a “dirty bomb”). Past confirmed incidents of illicit trafficking in highly enriched uranium and plutonium involved seizures of kilogram quantities of weapons-usable nuclear material but most have involved very small quantities. In some of these cases, it is possible that the seized material was a sample of larger quantities available for illegal purchase. IAEA concluded that these materials pose a continuous potential security threat to the international community, including the United States. Nuclear material could be smuggled into the United States in a variety of ways: hidden in a car, train or ship; sent through the mail; carried in a private aircraft or small boat; carried in personal luggage through an airport; or walked across the border. In response to these threats, U.S. agencies—including DHS, DOD, DOE, and State—fund, manage, and implement programs to combat nuclear smuggling in foreign countries and the United States. DOD, DOE, and State are responsible specifically for the overseas programs. Many of these programs started operations prior to DNDO’s creation and collectively cover all of the geographic regions of the global strategy. (See fig. 1.) For example, DOE’s Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting program, initiated in 1995, provides support to the Russian Federation and other former Soviet Union countries to secure nuclear weapons and weapons material that may be at risk of theft or diversion. In addition, during the 1990s, the United States began deploying radiation detection equipment at borders in countries of the former Soviet Union. DOD’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program was established in the early 1990s to help address proliferation concerns in the former Soviet Union, including helping secure sites where nuclear weapons are located. Two other DOD programs have provided radiation portal monitors, hand-held equipment, and radiation detection training to countries in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe. Similarly, DOE’s Second Line of Defense program, initiated in 1998, supplies radiation detection equipment, training, and communication systems to Russia and other countries. DOE’s Megaports Initiative, also part of the Second Line of Defense program, began in 2003 and is focused on providing radiation detection systems at major international seaports. Once the equipment is installed, it is then operated by foreign government officials and port personnel working at these ports. State also has programs that provide radiation detection equipment and training to numerous countries. Domestically, DHS, in conjunction with other federal, state, and local agencies, is responsible for combating nuclear smuggling in the United States and has provided radiation detection equipment, including portal monitors, personal radiation detectors (known as pagers), and radioactive isotope identifiers at U.S. ports of entry, as well as in other settings. For example, DHS has equipped Coast Guard boarding and inspection teams with portable detection systems and has provided equipment, training, and assistance in other maritime, air, and land venues. In addition, DOE has programs to secure nuclear and radioactive sources domestically. For example, the U.S. Radiological Threat Reduction program recovers and manages excess and unwanted radioactive sources that belong to U.S. licensees. In addition, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as 35 states that have signed an agreement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, are responsible for regulating the security of radioactive and nuclear materials within the United States through its Radiological Materials and Reactor Security Programs. Several types of radiation detection equipment are used by CBP, the Coast Guard, and other agencies involved in radiological and nuclear detection activities: radiation portal monitors, radioactive isotope identification devices (RIID), and personal radiation detectors, among others. Portal monitors are stationary or mobile pieces of equipment that can detect radioactive materials carried by vehicles or transported in cargo containers. RIIDs are a type of handheld radiation detection equipment that can detect radiation as well as identify the specific isotope of the radioactive source. Personal radiation detectors are worn by CBP officials, Coast Guard boarding teams, and other law enforcement agents. Unlike portal monitors and RIIDs, personal radiation pagers function primarily as personal safety devices to alert the individual wearer when he or she is exposed to an increased level of radiation. Under certain circumstances these devices also could be used to detect smuggled nuclear material. However, they can only indicate variations in the general level of radiation and their sensitivity is limited because of the small size of the detector. Therefore, they should not be relied upon for that purpose. All radiation detection devices have limitations in their ability to detect and identify nuclear material. Detecting attempted nuclear smuggling is difficult because many sources of radiation are legal and not harmful when used as intended. These materials can trigger alarms—known as nuisance or innocent alarms—that may be difficult to distinguish in some cases from alarms that could sound in the event of a true case of nuclear smuggling without a thorough secondary inspection. Nuisance or innocent alarms can be caused by patients who have recently had cancer treatments, a wide range of cargo with naturally occurring radiation (e.g., fertilizer, ceramics, and food products), and legitimate shipments of radiological sources for use in medicine and industry. Additionally, detecting actual cases of illicit trafficking in weapons-useable nuclear material is complicated: one of the materials of greatest concern in terms of proliferation—highly enriched uranium—is among the most difficult materials to detect because of its relatively low level of radioactivity. DNDO is currently testing the next generation of radiation portal monitors—the advanced spectroscopic portal monitor, or ASP. We have repeatedly raised concerns about DNDO’s efforts to develop and test ASPs. Specifically, we found that testing of ASPs at DOE’s Nevada Test Site did not represent an objective or rigorous assessment because DNDO used biased test methods that enhanced the apparent performance of the ASPs and did not test the limitations of the ASPs’ detection capabilities. In 2008, we also found that DNDO’s cost estimate to equip U.S. ports of entry with radiation detection equipment is unreliable because it omits major project costs and relies on a flawed methodology. Furthermore, the agency is no longer following the original project execution plan, the scope of the agency’s current ASP deployment strategy has changed, and DNDO now plans a much more limited deployment of the ASP than initially proposed. The current ASP testing is expected to continue into 2009. DNDO’s ultimate goal is to expand radiological and nuclear detection capabilities to areas identified as vulnerable to nuclear smuggling. To that end, in 2005, DNDO identified critical gaps in domestic efforts to prevent and detect radiological and nuclear smuggling, including, but not limited to: (1) land border areas between ports of entry into the United States, (2) aviation, and (3) small maritime craft. However, DNDO is still in the early stages of developing initiatives to address these vulnerabilities, and it has not clearly articulated a long-term plan for how to achieve its goal of closing these gaps by expanding radiological and nuclear detection capabilities in the time frames identified. Land border areas between ports of entry. The United States has more than 6,000 miles of land border susceptible to illegal crossings by people and vehicles. DNDO began addressing this gap in 2005 and currently is jointly working with CBP to equip Border Patrol agents—who are responsible for patrolling the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico—with portable radiological and nuclear detection equipment by 2012. Portability is critical to strengthening radiation detection efforts because it expands the opportunity to detect a potential radiological threat should a Border Patrol agent encounter one. To date, as part of a phased approach, DNDO and CBP have tested and evaluated radiation detection equipment and CBP developed operating procedures for using the equipment and resolving radiation alarms along the southern U.S. border. However, similar tests along the northern U.S. border have been postponed. Specifically, DNDO and CBP originally scheduled equipment testing along the southern border for January 2008 and along the northern border for March 2008. However, they did not actually begin testing along the southern border until May 2008. According to a CBP official, DNDO explained that this schedule slip was caused by a delay in selecting the equipment for the test. DNDO told us that it chose to conduct an additional review of commercially available detection equipment before field testing, which caused these tests to be delayed. As a result of preliminary findings from the field tests, DNDO and CBP decided in November 2008 to indefinitely postpone the previously scheduled tests along the northern border. According to these agencies, the preliminary test results indicated that further technological improvements will be necessary before the portable radiation detection equipment can be distributed more widely for use in this environment. Full distribution of equipment along the land border areas between ports of entry is contingent on completing these field evaluations and entails providing detection equipment and operating procedures to all 20 Border Patrol sectors across the United States. Assuming no further schedule and technological delays, the radiation detection equipment to help secure the U.S. land border areas between ports of entry may not be fully in place until fiscal year 2012. According to DNDO, the agency requested a total of $33.6 million in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 for such initiatives, but it has not estimated the total cost for this effort beyond those years. One of DNDO’s roles in supporting the effort to close gaps in the land border area between ports of entry is to procure and supply detection equipment to CBP. However, according to CBP officials, in fiscal year 2008, DNDO did not procure needed radiation detection equipment in a timely manner.