Who We Are
Securing America...at the Water’s Edge
19 years ago, the United States addressed the potential threat to her ports, commerce and citizens by passing the 2006 SAFE Port Act, mandating all shipping containers be scanned for nuclear/radiological threats before reaching U.S. soil.
Current Day
Nineteen years later, as the western world is facing dangerous showdowns with nuclear-armed adversaries, America remains wide open to the threat of chemical and nuclear attack. The reason: domestic ports still rely on older radiation monitors that only scan containers when leaving U.S. ports.
Florida, working with Safe Port Terminals, has the opportunity to lead America’s response to this threat. The solution: upgrade a previously proven radiation detection system to scan 100% of ocean containers before reaching U.S. soil.
Our Mission
Safe Port Terminals recognizes America’s port defense begins at the water’s edge, and now has modernized technology that will secure our ports from the unthinkable.
Safe Port Terminals
Awareness
Less than five percent of incoming ocean containers are scanned for nuclear/radiation threats by local port customs officers at the request of CBP officials stationed abroad
The Risk
Unscanned ocean containers can expose port workers and surrounding neighborhoods to the risk of radiologica/nuclear materials or devices (e.g. “Dirty bombs”)
Infrastructure
22 U.S. ports unload or load over 96% of all ocean containers. 17 of these port are designated as critical strategic U.S. national defense seaports
U.S. ports are primarily located in or around heavily populated urban areas.
The Rand Corporation has called this
“a poor man's ICBM waiting to happen”.
Technology needs
While the 2006 SAFE Port Act mandated radiation scanning of foreign containers before entering U.S. seaports, the CBP has not been able to develop an advanced technology that would allow the mandate to be fully implemented
Taking Action
The CBP has requested innovative technology that reduces the CBP officer requirements at seaports because the projected container volume in the U.S. is expected to increase more rapidly than the CBP can recruit officers