 |
Home All News Topics More Bottled Water News
Technology can screen water bottles for explosives
By WaterWebster Staff©
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Technology currently in use in Philadelphia can detect explosive chemicals in water bottles, the manufacturer said Saturday.
“We have a portable system,” Roger Spillmann, president and chief executive of HiEnergy Technologies Inc. said. “We are able to detect explosives in bottles.”
The HiEnergy technology, in a yellow suitcase-like container, has been used for six months by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Agency (SPTA) to screen suspicious packages.
Spillmann said in a telephone interview with WaterWebster.com that the technology could be expanded to scan water bottles and other fluid containers for combustible material at airports. All fluids, including bottled water, were banned from airlines in the U.S. and Great Britain this week when security forces uncovered a suspected plot to blow up airliners using liquid explosives.
Spillmann said his company’s screening equipment detects explosive material in any kind of container, including lead. It also doesn’t matter, he added, if the explosives are in liquid or solid form.
The Philadelphia-area transit system has been using HiEnergy equipment when it checks suspicious packages, rather than calling out the bomb squad to inspect abandoned brief cases and other objects left on trains and subways, said Spillmann.
According to a news report by CBS3 in Philadelphia, the current, portable systems aren’t practical for high-volume airport use because the small scanners take about two minutes to check a bag and cost about $300,000 each.
Spillmann estimated it would take about 12 months and $1 million to adapt his company’s technology to work with the conveyor and x-ray systems used by airport screeners.
He’s been seeking private financing to underwrite the development cost. But, he said, “I didn’t think of going to the water industry and asking them to help." His Irvine, Ca. company has U.S. government contracts but not specifically to screen liquids for explosive materials.
© Copyright 2006 WaterWebster.com
Terms of Use:
News organizations, non profits and trade publications are welcome to reproduce this article as long as they credit WaterWebster.com
