Politics & Government

Riverside County Agrees To Buy Radiation Detection Equipment For Public Safety

The system tests air quality in order to reduce risk of exposure to hazardous materials.

Riverside County supervisors today approved a $52,000 expenditure for a radiation monitoring system that health officials say will enable them to quickly measure levels of radioactivity and determine whether areas are safe to inhabit.

Without comment, the Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to authorize the county Department of Environmental Health to purchase the Guardian Predator Portable Radiation Detection System from Oakridge, Tenn.-based Nucsafe Inc.

According to documents posted on the Board of Supervisors' agenda, the system tests for air quality in order to reduce "risk of exposure to hazardous materials."

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According to the Department of Environmental Health, the "equipment will assist staff in testing and relaying information to responders and help in determining any required action" and "will provide an indirect benefit by allowing the department to enable the public to return to an evacuated area more quickly."

County officials said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security uses the same Nucsafe gear. The equipment consists of backpack-mounted radiation detectors that can identify gamma-ray and neutron sources of radioactivity at both lethal and minimal levels, according to the Nucsafe website.

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"Covert nuclear attack is the foremost threat facing the United States (U.S.) and is a primary focus of the war on terror.  The safety of the U.S. depends upon its ability to design and field systems to detect and interdict smuggled nuclear weapons and materials. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is chartered to develop, acquire, and support deployment and improvement of a domestic system to detect attempts to import, assemble, or transport a nuclear explosive device, fissile material or radiological material intended for illicit use," the Nucsafe website reads.

The DEH selected the company's products without seeking competitive bids, saying there was nothing else comparable on the market.

The $52,638 expenditure will be covered with grant funding, officials said. --City News Service and Toni McAllister contributed to this report.



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