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Air safety made in O.C.?
By JOHN GITTELSOHN
The Orange County Register
A small Irvine company may have the technology that would allow passengers to bring their hair gels and beverages aboard planes again without compromising safety.
HiEnergy Technologies developed a chemical detection system that some experts say could help foil plots to blow up planes such as the one exposed in Britain this week. For years, though, the company has struggled to sell the system to airport authorities.
“I think their technology is revolutionary and we need it,” said Charles Slepian, founder of the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center in New York.
Current airport screening devices, such as X-ray machines, cannot see chemicals inside sealed packages. That's why airlines banned passengers from bringing liquids on planes.
“What happened today tells us we have to revisit baggage screening,” said Roger Spillmann, chief executive officer of the 20-employee company.
HiEnergy's devices can see into packages by shooting neutrons which bounce back as gamma rays that paint a distinct signature for each chemical, enabling screeners to spot nitroglycerine, plastic explosives, drugs such as cocaine or plain water.
“Each element has its own energy so we can pick up chemical formulas,” Spillmann said. “We also can tell you the components are there to mix explosives.”
Currently, only the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, a commuter rail operator, has contracted to use HiEnergy's “Atometer” explosive detection system. HiEnergy has also won research contracts with the U.S. military for products to search for landmines, unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices.
Spillmann said the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees airport security, is reluctant to deal with a company as small as HiEnergy.
Nico Melendez, a Los Angeles spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, said he is unfamiliar with HiEnergy but his agency welcomes new ideas.
“Obviously, we constantly work with industry to improve and develop new technology,” Melendez said.
Another concern is that chemical screenings would slow the boarding process. Spillmann said the TSA wants to process 10 packages a minute but his company's machines can read only about two or three packages a minute. He said it would take $1 million and one year for HiEnergy to build a usable prototype.
Slepian, the risk analyst and a frequent critic of the TSA, conceded that HiEnergy's technology is too slow to screen all baggage but might work as a secondary process.
“The government is right when they say they're a little company.” Slepian said. “But the government's job is to make them bigger when they can save lives.”
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