Radiation detection systems can be installed at truck inspection stations.

Mobile terrorist detection systems hit the road

Portable systems developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to detect the presence of nuclear material are being used to make the nation's highways safer.

The radiation detection technology, for which lab scientists and engineers won a 2005 R&D 100 award for innovative discoveries, has been licensed to Wilmington, Mass.-based Textron Defense Systems Corp. The company developed a fleet of SUVs equipped with the anti-terrorism tools for the state of New Jersey.

These RadTrucks have been cruising New Jersey highways for a year as part of the monitoring efforts of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and the state police. The devices can detect the presence of illicit radioactive materials that could be used to create "dirty bombs."

Another state, in the western United States, uses the system at vehicular entrances along its borders. Another has purchased RadTrucks as interest in the system is growing among states and local agencies.

Known as an adaptable radiation area monitor, the system can detect concealed radioactive material as small as a grain of sand moving at 45 mph. The detection system can be installed in SUVs and trucks or as a monitor along roadsides. It can also be adapted as a pedestrian monitor, a package or luggage detector and as both a fixed and portable maritime detector.

"This type of system gives us a better chance of not only picking up that there's radiation, but the type of radiation, whether it's a medical isotope or a terrorist device," said Dave Trombino, a nuclear engineer at the lab who helped develop the system.