Screening system protects ports from deadly cargo (PopSci/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Mark Schrope
Popular Science

To security experts, the immense cargo ships that ferry more than 11 million containers into this country annually are potential Trojan horses -- each one could easily harbor a WMD, such as a dirty bomb.

Typically, only once the ships have been unloaded is their cargo subjected to random inspections and radiation scans. "There is an urgent need to effectively screen cargo before it reaches the ports," says Charles Meade, a senior scientist at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit think tank.

Now Florida start-up SeaAway has developed a security system that would move cargo screening 14 miles offshore to the safety of the open seas. The plan calls for pairs of 100-foot-wide platforms anchored outside the world's major ports. Equipped with an array of sensors and unmanned surveillance drones, the system monitors for chemical, biological and nuclear traces as ships travel between the platforms.

SeaAway proposes a passage fee of $20 per container -- roughly double average port fees -- to help authorities offset the $100-million cost of each system. Tax breaks for shippers could help curb costs, notes Steve Kroecker, SeaAway's founder and vice president.
How it works

1. Construction: begins this summer on a prototype system. Kroecker won't disclose specifics but says that SeaAway is in talks with officials from four ports in the Caribbean and one on the U.S. eastern seaboard.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/06/27/sentinels.at.sea/index.html

HOLY BLEEDING SHIT!! These guys are proposing to rebuild all the world's major ports at fantastic cost just so we can let the evildoers know which ports to avoid. As if the dope smugglers don't already know how to avoid port inspections.

Guess they'll need the help of some company with experience in offshore platform construction ... say one of the oil industry construction firms, like, oh, I don't know ... Halliburton?

:tinfoilhat: Windex keeps my foil gleaming like new!

[Turbineguy]

1. That would be

nearly $150,000 per ship in some cases. The new Emma Maersk carries over 7000 40+ft containers.