The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has allocated $3.2 million toward deploying radiation detectors at interstate weigh stations in the Southeast. The awards represent the first phase of a Southeastern pilot program from the department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. The two-year effort — involving federal, state and local governments in nine states and the District of Columbia — will develop a regional interdiction system to prevent radiological or nuclear attack.
“The Southeast transportation corridor sees some of the largest concentrations of truck traffic in the country,” says Vayl Oxford, director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. “The work that we are doing in the Southeast will ultimately lead to a web of radiation detection systems on our nation’s highways,” says Oxford, an Air Force veteran who previously led counterproliferation efforts for the National Security Council and the Pentagon’s Defense Special Weapons Agency.
Initial grants will go to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, the South Carolina State Transport Police, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
