Challenges Facing HLS- Dirty Bombs and Nuclear Weapons Threats

Challenges Facing HLS- Dirty Bombs and Nuclear Weapons Threats

Dirty bombs and nuclear weapons threats are one of the major challenges in border protection by the DHS. Terrorists are using modern technology to develop nuclear weapons that could cause mass destruction. The modern world is more at threat of nuclear weapons than any other time in history, meaning that the DHS is under pressure to ensure that the borders are secure and such weapons are immediately detected and prevented from entering the country (Bruggeman, & Rohrbaugh, 2020). Experts have indicated that technically savvy terrorists could, without state support, improvise nuclear weapons. In some cases, governments could collaborate with terrorist groups and help them make nuclear weapons to attack a perceived enemy. I the terrorists acquire nuclear weapons, they could try using different means to bring down powerful nations such as the U.S. (Medalia, 2005). The U.S. has thousands of miles of land and sea borders and many port entry points. Terrorists might also smuggle nuclear weapons through lightly guarded border stretches by shipping them through cargo containers.

The architecture of the U.S. response is defined in layered defence. The main goal of layered defence is to try as much as possible to block terrorist incidences at various stages in their attempt to smuggle in nuclear weapons. One important point to note is that the probability of blocking security threats by DHS is high when ether is many-layered defences rather than a pone defence (Medalia, 2005). It becomes hard for a terrorist to evade all the security defences to manage and bring in their destructive weapons without being detected. Some layers of security using advanced detection technologies are capable of detecting even non-assembled components of destructive weapons (Stephens, 2020). Terrorists sometimes bring in components of non-assembled weapons so that they can easily smuggle them in and assemble them within the borders.

One of the modern and future technological solutions to the challenge of smuggling in nuclear weapons is radiation detection in cargo and conveyance. Radiation detection is not very new, but it is becoming a popular technique the security agents at border points and ports of entry are using to ensure that the goods entering a country are safe goods. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 11 million cargo containers arrive on ships and are offloaded to the U.S. seaports (Bruggeman, & Rohrbaugh, 2020). There are a lot of containers, and the tasks of examining each of the containers to check what they are carrying nuclear and radiological materials could be tedious and near to impossible tasks.

To prevent nuclear materials from entering the country is enforced through enforcing licensing requirements for the import and export of radioactive materials in that firms that want to import or export such materials are registered and licensed; hence, nobody else is allowed to import or export such materials (Bruggeman, & Rohrbaugh, 2020). The second security measure is prescreening all the cargo entering and leaving the country. Thirdly, all the cargo is inspected using radiation detectors; thus, radiation detection of cargo is one of the accurate and modern ways of detecting dangerous nuclear weapons on cars ago on transit (Medalia, 2005). Radiation detection encompasses sensitive inorganic scintillator crystals coupled with photo multiple tubes. The detection weapons also have multichannel analyzers and computers with analysis software (Stephens, 2020). This combination creates signals that are suitable is developing an energy spectrum of the detected photons. Thus, the energy spectrum is the primary information in gamma spectroscopy, and this helps in revealing the kind of cargo that is contained in the shipping containers.

To facilitate the use of radiation detection effectively, the DHS has some financial and legal implications. First, the acquisition of the devices that facilitate radiation detection can be quite expensive since the process needs to be at all border entry points where the cargo is entering the country (Stephens, 2020). There are thousands of entry points meaning that the technology would require considerable resources to ensure that every entry point has enough personnel and technology to carry out the tasks effectively. From the legal perspective, those carrying pit the radiation detection must be licensed to handle such technologies. Besides the resources required and the licensing, the personnel needs to be trained on how to use the radiation technology (Medalia, 2005). Therefore, both the financial and the legal implications that come with radiation detection can be costly to the DHS.

References

Bruggeman, N & Rohrbaugh, B. (2020).  Closing critical gaps that hinder Homeland Security technology innovation. Homeland Security Policy paper 5. Retrieved from https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/files/publication/HSP%20paper%20series%205-2.pdf

Medalia, J (2005). Nuclear Terrorism: A Brief Review of Threats and Responses. CRS Report for Congress. Retrieved from https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/RL32595.pdf

Stephens, M. (2020). Border Protection by Detecting Radiation on Container Ships. Retrieved from https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/identifying-threats/border-protection-by-detecting-radiation-on-container-ships/

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Following up on your memo, pick a root problem in HLS, either a critical vulnerability or threat. Draft a business plan identifying an emerging technology, or describing characteristics of a future technology that will be capable of solving the problem. Discuss the following:

Detail the issue or problem.
Identify and describe the solution (or future technological solution), and explain how it solves the problem.
Discuss the financial, legal, and ethical implications of such a solution.
Make certain that your solution does not violate physical laws. Support your arguments with authoritative sources, and apply appropriate APA formatting guidelines.