Scientist Claims Army Distorted Facts On Laser Based Perimeter Detection Device

The Anniston incinerator is the model upon which the incinerator at the Umatilla Chemical Depot was built.

In comments made Tuesday during breaks in a two-day public conference here, Dr. Ram A Hashmonay suggested the Army’s opposition to a laser-based perimeter detection device was based on outdated and misrepresented research.

The Army’s Chemical Materials Agency organized the conference to give community representatives from stockpile communities a chance to learn about agent monitoring technology and to voice their concerns.

Hashmonay helped develop the laser technology and is a consultant to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. He said the technology has become dramatically more sophisticated in recent years and, if operated correctly, could enhance the Army’s detection and tracking of airborne agent.

“They haven’t talked to me,” Hashmonay said of the Army. “How do they know what we’ve done in the last 10 years?”

Army officials said earlier in the conference that the perimeter agent-monitoring equipment currently in place in Anniston represents the best technology available.

They said the laser-based device advocated by Hashmonay, known as a Open-Path Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (OP-FTIR), cannot detect small amounts of agent, is prone to false alarms, and covers a limited area.

“The value added to this is nothing,” said Randall Bright, a chemical surety officer at the Anniston stockpile.

Bobby Phillips, an Army scientist, compared OP-FTIR, which uses evenly spaced laser beams across wide areas, to a fishing net too big to catch enough fish. Agent could slip undetected between the beams, he said.

Installation of the system, which depends on open space, would require significant tree-cutting, equipment maintenance and operator training, said Tim Garrett, the Army’s site manager at the incinerator.

But Hashmonay said the Army’s arguments rely on outdated research and false assumptions. During breaks in the conference, several activists echoed Hashmonay’s views.

Unlike its prototype predecessors, OP-FTIR can detect agent levels, in most cases, to within the range considered dangerous by federal regulators, Hashmonay said.

By monitoring a perimeter area 12 inches wide and hundreds of feet long, each beam far surpasses the coverage provided by the Army’s current point-source monitors, according to Hashmonay.

Rufus Kinney, of Families Concerned about Nerve Gas Incineration, argued that the technology isn’t intended to stand alone, but is meant to be used with existing monitors to cover a wider area and give a clearer picture of plume movement based on real-time monitoring.

The Army relies on a computer modeling program to predict how and where a chemical plume would move.

Kinney said it would cost between $2 million and $4 million – out of the $1.2 billion local program – to install the device at Anniston.

Several million dollars of the Pentagon’s nearly $500 billion budget is not too much to ask, said Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Downing.

The Army risks a major blow to public confidence if money isn’t put toward exploring OP-FTIR, Downing said.

The National Research Council has expressed support for OP-FTIR and Congress has called for improved detection systems at stockpile sites, but so far has only appropriated funds for a Kentucky facility.

By: Shane Ennerson

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Dragonlasers - No 1 online store for green laser pointers, high power lasers & laser glasses Click here for Laser Safety