By Guy Ashley
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Published on April 3, 2003,
Pp a08, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)
SAN FRANCISCO—Livermore scientists unveiled their efforts Wednesday to develop a new detection system at San Francisco International Airport to protect against chemical or biological terrorist attacks.
Sandia/California National Laboratories officials have been working for the past four years on developing a detection system that could warn of the release of chemical or biological agents inside SFO's terminals.
But officials said tests have taken on new urgency in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq.
"The ultimate goal is an integrated system that will save lives in the event of a chemical or biological attack," said Susanna Gordon, a Sandia researcher who serves as principal investigator for the program — Protective and Responsive Options for Airport Counter-Terrorism (PROACT).
It began in response to a 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 and sent more than 3,000 to the hospital.
The attack led Sandia scientists to take part in development of a detection system now in place in Washington, D.C.'s, subway network.
In 1998, Sandia began its collaboration at SFO to develop a similar system effective in airports.
Originally funded by the Department of Energy, it is now conducted under the aegis of the new Department of Homeland Security.
It's another example of how the proximity of federal laboratories like Sandia may give the Bay Area a leg up in the development of homeland security programs.
Last year, for instance, scientists at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory unveiled a testing program to develop sensors that might help prevent terrorists from smuggling nuclear materials or "dirty bombs" among the hundreds of cargo boxes shipped into the Port of Oakland each day.
Duane Lindner, deputy director of Sandia's Chem-Bio program, said SFO is an ideal venue for the airport testing program because its three main terminals are each unique in design. This helps scientists understand how a building's physical layout can affect a detection system's accuracy.
Lindner said tests involve the use of detection methods first developed for military applications.
The trick, he said, is integrating such devices into a larger system that takes into account a building's physical security program and the effects of ventilation systems on the way chemical or biological agents are spread.
Experiments have included dispersal of harmless gases, mists and powders in airport buildings to simulate how deadly substances such as sarin, ricin or anthrax might spread through the terminals — and what role heating and ventilation systems may play.
Sandia scientists have also helped the airport work on a program to ensure exposed people are treated quickly and effectively, and those not exposed are prevented from entering contaminated areas.
Airport officials said response efforts will be aided immensely by SFO's new mobile decontamination unit, a shower-equipped trailer that could service up to 1,800 people hourly after a suspected chemical or biological attack.
"What we're doing involves a lot more than just building a better detector," Lindner said.
Neither Sandia nor SFO officials could say when a detection system might be fully operational at the airport. "Ideally, it would have been yesterday," SFO spokesman Mike McCarron said
