§981 Pilot integrated scanning system

Summary

Within 90 days after October 13, 2006, the Secretary must pick three different foreign seaports to run pilot integrated scanning systems that pair nonintrusive imaging with radiation detectors. The Secretary must work with the Department of Energy (using its Second Line of Defense and Megaports programs), the private sector, or host governments to get equipment that meets needed technical specs. By one year after October 13, 2006, the pilots must be fully running. They must scan every container loaded for the United States at those ports, send images and data electronically to U.S. reviewers either in that country or in the United States, clear every radiation alarm under Department rules, use the data to improve the Automated Targeting System or similar programs, keep the data for later use, and may send automated alerts about suspicious cargo for further inspection. Within 180 days after full operation, the Secretary, with the Secretaries of State and Energy as needed, must report to Congress on lessons learned; how well the targeting systems use the images; how well the system finds shielded and unshielded nuclear or radiological material; the ability of software to spot anomalies automatically; and whether it is practical to expand the system to other ports. That expansion analysis must cover infrastructure, effects on processing speed, scalability for future trade, data storage during disruptions, costs to install and maintain the system, staff ability to manage the data, protection of commercial information, and current technology reliability.