Radiation detectors for border delayed

A $1.2-billion plan by the Department of Homeland Security to buy a new kind of radiation-detection machine for the nation’s borders has been put on hold again, a blow to one of the Bush administration’s top security goals.

At the same time, federal authorities are investigating whether Homeland Security officials urged an analyst to destroy information about the performance of the machines during testing, according to interviews and a document.

For more than a year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and others have told Congress that the costly next-generation machines would sharply improve the screening of trucks, cars and cargo containers for radiological material. In announcing contracts in July 2006 to buy as many as 1,400 of the devices, Chertoff said they were ready to be deployed in the field for research. He recently called their acquisition a “vital priority.”

But in the face of growing questions by government auditors, Congress and border officials about the machines’ performance, Chertoff has decided that they don’t operate well enough and need more work.

It could be another year before they are ready, officials said.

In a statement, Laura Keehner, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said field tests of the advanced spectroscopic portal radiation monitors, or ASPs, at several locations by Customs and Border Protection officials turned up shortcomings that “led to the determination that additional functional capability is needed to meet the operational requirements.”

The turnabout is among a series of episodes that have raised questions about the management of the department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and its efforts to deploy the promising but highly complex and largely untried machines, which cost $377,000 each.

In a Nov. 16 letter to Congress, the director of the nuclear detection office said his staff members were looking into allegations that someone there directed National Institute of Standards and Technology personnel, who were helping to analyze recent results of testing of the machines, to delete some of the data.

“We have also issued a preservation notice to all personnel who have worked on the ASP program directing them to preserve all documents, e-mail, and memoranda relating to the ASP program,” Vayl S. Oxford, director of the nuclear detection office, wrote to Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has been examining the program.

Russ Knocke, a Homeland Security spokesman, acknowledged that the nuclear detection office had communicated with an analyst at the standards and technology agency about the data. But, he said, “we’ve nearly completed our review, and there is no indication of anything inappropriate.”

Earlier this year, Government Accountability Office auditors found that Homeland Security officials had allowed contractors to conduct “dress rehearsals” and calibrate their machines in anticipation of tests in January and February, a move that auditors said had enhanced the outcome of tests.

GAO officials testified recently that they had trouble getting more test results from the nuclear detection officials to verify the machines’ performance.

In a statement Monday, Dingell said the possibility that some of the data may have been destroyed was troubling. “In the past, when records have been intentionally destroyed to thwart congressional oversight, it led to severe consequences,” he said.