Shipping Containers Leaving Port of San Diego Screened By Customs & Border Protection

Shipping Containers Leaving Port of San Diego Screened By Customs & Border Protection

Friday, 14 December 2007

Harbor Police News

More than 400 containers per week leaving the Port's Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal are being scanned for terrorist weapons. United States Customs and Border Protection installed the detectors at the terminal as part of its nationwide effort to detect radiological and nuclear weapons.

The scanning is done by officers from Customs and Border Protection. The equipment can detect any radiation in the contents of shipping containers that are trucked past the sensing equipment.

There is one primary station on the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal, and more than 400 trucks, most carrying containers with agriculture commodities such as bananas, go through the detector each week. The cost to install the sensors was $560,000 and was funded by Customs and Border Protection.

The law enforcement agency is installing the monitors nationwide - at seaports, land border crossings and international airports. The monitor sends out an alert when energy emitted by radioactive sources passes nearby, alerting an officer to take action to isolate and identify the source.

The monitors can safely inspect fruits and vegetables because they are only responding if there are any radioactive elements hidden within the shipments – they don’t scan the fruits or vegetables.

Customs and Border Protection scans all cargo arriving from Mexico, more than 90 percent of the cargo arriving from Canada and 97 percent of all cargo arriving in the U.S. seaports. Customs began using the monitors in 2002 and has nearly 1,100 in operation across the nation.

The Port of San Diego is a public benefit corporation and special government entity. Created in 1963 by an act of the California legislature, the Port manages San Diego harbor and administers the public lands along San Diego Bay. The Port has operated without tax dollars since 1970 and has been responsible for $1.5 billion in public improvements in its five member cities – Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego. With a $10.6 billion economic impact on the San Diego region, the Port oversees two maritime cargo terminals, a cruise ship terminal, 16 public parks, various wildlife reserves and environmental initiatives, a Harbor Police department and the leases of over 600 tenant businesses around San Diego Bay.

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