Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Civil Air Patrol offers its services

Planes try to spot radioactive materials

Thermo Electron's Thea Philliou uses a radiation detection system on a Nevada Civil Air Patrol plane flying Tuesday near Hoover Dam. Photo by Gary Thompson. Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson.

Pilots from Nevada's Civil Air Patrol flew search missions Tuesday over the outskirts of Henderson and Boulder City to show how they could find radioactive materials that would-be terrorists might use in so-called dirty bombs.

While no such materials were found, they hope the demonstration will persuade legislators and the Department of Homeland Security to equip local squadrons with portable, radiological surveillance gear for their small, low-flying airplanes.

"The system is very good and very reliable," said Maj. Phillip Doyle, one of the Nevada wing's most senior pilots.

The Cessna-182 planes could each carry a suitcase-size, gamma-ray detection box linked to a laptop computer.

They could fly 500 to 1,000 feet above the New Year's Eve crowd on the Strip or the 150,000 race fans at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Within minutes, they could detect even a tiny "spike" from a man-made radioactive source among the landscape of natural, background radiation below.

Denny Cannon, account manager for the system's manufacturer, Thermo Electron, said the system can decipher natural radiation sources from man-made ones as well as give operators a measure of energy emanating from a particular source.

"If it's high energy, there's a chance somebody's up to no good," he said after briefing law enforcement officers on the technology.

Capt. Ron Cuzze, government affairs officer, said the Civil Air Patrol's Nevada Wing intends to ask state legislators for $120,000 to purchase three units from Thermo Electron. Money also could be sought from the Department of Homeland Security next year, he said.

He said the Civil Air Patrol, which is the Air Force auxiliary, is the proper agency to find dirty bomb materials because law prohibits the military from carrying out law enforcement within the United States.

Doyle said roughly 99 percent of functions carried out by the Civil Air Patrol require Air Force approval.

"It sounds like cheap insurance to me," he said about the prospects for the patrol's Homeland Security role.

"It's cost effective. It costs us about $80 per hour to operate our aircraft," he said, noting there are no overhead expenses beyond fuel and maintenance, which are reimbursed.

"We do this for free. The taxpayer would basically be paying the operating costs of the aircraft and nothing more," he said.

As for safety in flying low over the Strip, Doyle said the Federal Aviation Administration is the final authority on allowing low flights and then only through written permission.

"We can show the FAA that we can fly low to the ground and over crowds safely," Doyle said.

Said Cuzze: "None of our guys is going to run into the Stratosphere."