"Ottawa airport to test dirty bomb sensor"

Wednesday, December 8, 2004

Ottawa airport to test dirty-bomb sensors
Canada - CTV.ca News


As a potential precursor to their introduction at airports countrywide, the
federal government is using Ottawa's international airport to test a new
system designed to sense so-called 'dirty bombs'.

The $4-million project is being overseen by the Chemical, Biological,
Radiological and Nuclear Research & Technology Initiative (CRTI).

According to a statement on the federal agency's website, the project "will
implement an operational radiological security system at the Ottawa
International Airport which will provide a model transferable for the
protection of other airports in the national aviation system."

By monitoring radiation levels in the air, the system should detect whether
airline passengers are carrying, or have been in recent contact with
radioactive materials.

According to security analyst Alan Bell of Globe Risk Holdings Inc., the
devices are aimed at stemming fears of a crude nuclear device exploding over
the airport or a crowded city centre.

"It makes no difference," he told CTV's Canada AM, explaining the recipe for
a so-called 'dirty bomb'. "You just use conventional explosives to detonate
another substance, that is all. Quite simple."

The $4 million system going into Ottawa's airport will consist of fixed
sensors in public corridors, as well as portable devices small enough to be
rove the airport grounds in security vehicles.

Fears that terrorists might use such a device were prickled recently with
news of a June 2004 report prepared by the national security threat
assessment centre at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

In a copy of the report obtained by The Canadian Press under an Access to
Information request, the agency considers the possibility Russian
backpack-style bombs lost more than ten years ago may have wound up in the
hands of the al Qaeda terror network.

The report notes that maintaining such devices for so long is very
difficult, and suggests a dirty bomb might be a "feasible alternative."

"Except in the most extreme circumstances, it is unlikely that a
radiological 'dirty bomb' would result in more casualties than could be
achieved with a comparable conventional weapon," the assessment said. 

"However, a contaminated area would pose long-term health concerns and could
cause panic within the population." 

If the devices to be installed in Ottawa prove successful, the program is
expected to be expanded to airports and cargo docks across the country in
2006.

But Bell says it could be a while before the sensors are everywhere.

"They're trying to introduce this equipment on a lot of the border crossings
... and at some of our ports, but this equipment is very, very expensive so
it's going to be a long time coming."

Despite the expense, this is not the first such program in the national
capital.

Last January, CRTI said 40 RCMP police cars fitted with dirty-bomb sensors
would cruise the capital. And in October, Transport Canada and the Canadian
Air Transport Security Authority introduced document scanners designed to
detect radiation on passports or boarding passes.


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