Controversial radiation monitors to cost DHS another $300 million

A controversial next-generation radiation monitor is expected to cost the U.S. Homeland Security Department $300 million over the coming four years even as testing has not confirmed the technology's efficacy in spotting smuggled nuclear material, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Advanced Spectroscopic Portal units are intended to detect potential radiological and nuclear-weapons materials that are covertly trafficked into the United States.

A National Academy of Sciences analysis in January criticized the Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office for inadequate testing of the detector's operational capabilities. The inconclusive findings, though, did not stop the office from touting the technology's capabilities to Congress "in ways that are incorrect and potentially misleading," the NAS report said.

Homeland Security has already said it would not use the ASP machines as front-line detectors, but rather as backups for primary sensors at points of entry. The Obama administration in February 2010 announced plans to significantly curb the program because of persistent concerns regarding expenses and operational value.

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office plans to purchase as many as 400 of the detectors no later than 2016, the agency's budget plans states. However, the office has failed to meet the mandate for an outside assessment of findings from ASP trials before the purchases, according to a unreleased Government Accountability Office report. Homeland Security has made to carry out that review, congressional auditors determined.

If there is no independent review, Homeland Security will not have "the input it needs to determine whether ASP is ready to progress toward production and deployment," the GAO report states. "This is especially important, given that program's troubled history."

Homeland Security staffers acknowledged the importance of such an outside review but said the ASP program is being assessed and that further testing of the devices is not on the calendar.

"The bottom line is that the ASP program has cost the department five years in the race to strengthen the nation's domestic defenses against nuclear terrorism. At this point, it is critical that the department begin working on a Plan B for accelerating improvement in the performance of current-generation radiation portal monitors," said Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

The Bush administration was a strong advocate of the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal monitors. Lawmakers in 2006 budgeted $1.2 billion for their development. In the years since, congressional investigators and others have found that DNDO officials misjudged their expense, incorrectly emphasized their value and delivered bad data to Capitol Hill.

In their February budget request, Homeland Security administrators said they envisioned deploying the detectors for secondary detection and that "between 300 and 400 ASP systems are required to complete the currently planned build-out."