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Truckers exiting Port Everglades will soon have to pass through hi-tech radiation detectors-tall yellow pillars geared to tighten security against terrorism.The equipment,known as radiation portal monitors, or RPMs, screens containers arriving from international destinations for nuclear and radioactive materials like those found in dirty bombs and nuclear weapons.Seven RPMs,valued at $200,000 each,are now being installed at Port Everglades,and will be operational by mid-August, said Paul Stansbury,deputy site manager for Richland,Wa.-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,the Department of Energy Lab contracted to design and install the equipment.The monitors are part of a federal goal to have 100 percent of all seagoing cargo containers scanned for radiation when they enter the United States by the end of September 2009.''This is an enhancement to securing the borders,''said Zachary Mann,special agent and spokesman for Customs and Border Protection,and an enhancement to the various layers we have to detect potential threats that could be devised from some source of radiation.''Besides Port Everglades, there are six RPMs at Port of Miami, four in Palm Beach and two in Panama City.Others are being installed at ports like Tampa and Jacksonville, for a total of 40 in Florida, Mann said.
In addition to seaports, the RPMs are found at such other locations as land border ports of entry, rail crossings and all international mail facilities,including one in Miami.In all,there are more than 1,000 in operation nationwide,he said.
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