Closing the dangerous gap: Optosecurity’s unique system helps guard against Nuclear Power Plant checkpoint vulnerabilities

By Optosecurity Inc.

Nuclear power plants employ some of the most sophisticated security technologies and protocols to guard access points against sabotage – yet the ongoing possibility of a successful terror attack with devastating repercussions remains. Such a reality dictates that nuclear power plants must constantly consider new and evolving technology solutions. Even a small gap in security uncovered by clever adversaries can result in a seemingly minor event that can have significant economic and operational consequences.

Ample historical evidence shows that many terror groups have their eyes on the few remaining nuclear power plants’ vulnerabilities. An event in May 2008 shows how power plants remain prime targets for terrorists: two contract workers were detained for having traces of explosives in a bag they carried into Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in southern Sweden. The explosive traces were reported to be triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, sometimes referred to as “mother of Satan” by terror groups who favour this extremely unstable explosive. Although the suspects have since been released, the event has renewed questions about security gaps at checkpoints and what must be done to ensure security. Considering that even small amounts of a substance carried through a checkpoint on any one day can cause horrible consequences on human, environmental and economic scales, imagine the devastating result of such quantities when stockpiled over a few days or weeks.

Checkpoint Security: An Imbalance of Man and Machine

The traditional checkpoint has three primary resources: the security screener, the checkpoint walk-through detectors for both metal and trace explosives, and the X-ray machine. These are supported by complementary security systems, such as cameras, handheld devices, secondary screening systems and controlled-access cards. The walk-through detector provides an automatic audible alarm notifying the screener of concealed metal or explosives on a person, the alarm, a seemingly simple feature, is an enormously important time-saving benefit to operators. Conversely, the traditional X-ray machine provides no automation or alarm for a more detailed human intervention – it simply outputs volumes and volumes of visual data for the screener to sift through.

In this case, the burden of detection is transferred to the security screeners – the essential operators and tactical decision makers at the checkpoint. What must be considered in a security-oriented context is that checkpoint human resources work under extreme and constant pressure to see that large volumes of shift workers flow through checkpoints without delays. Here we begin to see the troubling imbalance between man and machine.

Identifying the Universal Checkpoint Challenges to Close the Gap
The dangerous gap at the checkpoint is not the security screener – the problem is the complete absence of any decision-support technology to aide the screener in such complex duties. Without this proper support, a gap occurs that results in inconsistent threat detection leading to risks in infrastructure and lives.

Improving checkpoint threat detection requires identifying the common and universal security challenges of the infrastructure checkpoint. Although nuclear power plants are the focus here, consider how similar these challenges are to other infrastructure checkpoints, such as embassies, prisons, court houses, and schools.

1. Checkpoint Consistency and Reliability:

• Several challenges combine to affect the overall reliability of threat detection at checkpoints. Traditional checkpoint X-ray machines output vast volumes of visual information, but do not provide interpretation or filtering support to the screener. The most significant challenge is that screeners are human beings, inevitably subjective by nature, with various levels of experience, commitment or even job fatigue that compound the security challenge. The volume of visual information a screener faces on a daily basis is astounding and must be processed in seconds against an ever-expanding list of prohibited items – an incredibly taxing challenge when working without the support of information-processing technology.
• The complexity and variation of threats coupled with the challenge of mentally and visually reconstructing various items that individually may appears harmless but combined could be lethal, is at best taxing on human resources and at worst, impossible. An example of such a challenge is a dissembled weapon, with components spread between multiple packages or bags.
• Liquid or explosive threats do not have a physical shape that would provide a simple visual clue of their danger, nor can they be distinguished as a threat in conventional X-ray images.

2. Checkpoint Efficiency:

• Nuclear power plants operate 24 hours a day and require an enormous supporting staff to operate, maintain and secure the facility. In addition to the large number of employees taxing the checkpoints in high volume at shift changes, an ongoing daily flow of contract workers increases overall volume. Effective handling of such an enormous flow of people, and in particular handling surges of volume at peak hours, requires automation tools for threat detection and an improvement in screeners’ decision-making speed.

3. Improve Operation Management:

Nuclear power plants, similar to other critical infrastructure locations, are vast in size and include several different buildings and entrances – this inevitably requires multiple security checkpoints.

• Each checkpoint currently has legacy checkpoint X-ray systems in place with trained screeners and protocols – any major changes to these are frequently deemed very disruptive. Adding to this is the prohibitive cost of replacing all systems.
• Current infrastructure checkpoint X-ray systems work independently – information is not shared or networked between checkpoints or a central security command. In addition, any newly identified threats suffer a lag time wherein all staff must be trained before the checkpoint can be considered “updated.”

Effectively responding to these challenges with the appropriate, least disruptive solutions will improve checkpoint security and reduce the risks of these gaps being exploited.

New Perspective Helps Close the Gap
Unfortunately, conventional technology and solutions do not resolve the challenges described here. With this in mind, security professionals are looking at newly evolving solutions that take an unconventional approach to closing the security gap.

In recent years, an incredible breakthrough has been made in new and innovative technology that tackles these challenges from a distinct perspective. The company behind this new technology is Optosecurity. Looking at the challenges with a fresh perspective helped the Optosecurity team define what precise mix of technology and human skills were required to build a universal, long-term solution. The resulting R&D team that came together to build this product is as unique as the product itself. The company is staffed by physicists, image analysis and signal processing experts, electronic engineers, system architects and software engineers whose combined perspectives have resulted in the development of a new and unique system, the OptoScreener.

Ultimately, the most unique idea developed from the team is the concept that within the X-ray signal is a wealth of information above and beyond the simple 2-D image viewed by the screener. If that information were extracted and interpreted, it would provide an unprecedented support tool to resolve chief security challenges at the checkpoint.

Optosecurity’s New and Unique Decision Support System
The OptoScreener by Optosecurity is the world’s first checkpoint decision support system, designed to connect to legacy checkpoint X-ray systems to improve the overall consistency and efficiency of threat detection.

The OptoScreener addresses today’s increasingly stringent critical infrastructure checkpoint security needs. Based on X-ray physics, and combining advanced material analysis and intelligent vision, the OptoScreener can “see” if a screened bag or tray contains any undesirable objects or liquids. An inline solution, the OptoScreener automatically detects likely threats hidden in handheld baggage and personal items, and identifies dangerous liquids. As a universal system fitting most conventional detection X-ray machines, it bolsters security control by providing critical information on potential threats and reduces the requirement of secondary screening processes.

Finding the Threats
The OptoScreener simultaneously reconstructs data from conventional X-ray systems into high-resolution images, analyzes these images, automatically searches for potential threats, and warns the screener as soon as it finds something suspicious. All this occurs within a few seconds and does not slow down the screening process. The OptoScreener is not meant to replace the screener but to assist him in his task by highlighting areas of interest and providing alert messages and other related information when a potential threat is found.

To search for weapons and weapon components, the OptoScreener leverages a unique and unparalleled database of X-ray weapon images, ranging from exotic composite guns to small automatic weapons. This database was constructed by scanning actual weapons in a controlled environment using an innovative method that allows a full 3D X-ray reconstruction of each weapon. Consequently, through non-traditional viewing angles, the system can detect such weapons even if one tries to conceal them inside a bag. Search filters were designed to support materials and shapes from a large variety of weapons, not only the specific models used to build the threat library. The system also provides dark alarms and enhances the corresponding zones to prevent someone from hiding a weapon behind a large high-density object. Finally, the system can filter out common metallic objects, such as coins, wires and generic clutter to reduce the number of false alarms.

Another unique feature of the OptoScreener that plays an important role in closing the security gap is a liquid threat detection capability. Thanks to the Optosecurity XMS® (X-Ray Molecular Spectrometer) technology, the OptoScreener can identify liquid explosives and other dangerous liquids. This technology turns a conventional X-ray machine into a measuring instrument capable of interpreting the raw data to match the physical properties of the liquid threats. The key to liquid threat detection is to use advanced tomography techniques that combine signal processing and sophisticated machine vision algorithms to reconstruct 3D containers based on the available 2D projection. This allows the OptoScreener to remove the presence of the container from the X-ray data and more precisely measure the physical properties of the suspicious substance. By linking the resulting information to a liquid threat database and other contextual information, it becomes possible to distinguish between dangerous and non-threat substances even if their physical properties are very close to each other.

Although the technology behind the OptoScreener is complex, the concept of alerting the screener to focus on specific bags or containers remains quite simple and significantly improves overall threat detection.

Checkpoint Efficiency – Man and Machine Working in Parallel
The ability to improve threat detection at a checkpoint without compromising an efficient flow of people is crucial – this is where the OptoScreener provides industry with unique advantages.

The OptoScreener has demonstrated a remarkable ability to work around occlusions (blocking or obstruction of an object by other objects) to detect the presence of potential threats. Even in the presence of high occlusion levels, as often seen with the circumstances of metal objects and toolboxes in power plants, the OptoScreener processes traffic more quickly and efficiently.

Weapon detection is more objective, as the OptoScreener compensates for subjective human assessment of potential threats, therefore greatly complementing the screeners’ work.

Similar to weapon detection, the identification of liquid threats is carried out at the very same time the screener is examining the X-ray image on the screen. Moreover, because the automated liquid analysis does not require any containers to be opened, liquid detection is fast and safe. This contributes to maintaining throughput while improving overall security against liquid threats.

The “Checkpoint Network”
Checkpoints traditionally have always been viewed as independent security areas, even within a shared building. The networking capabilities of the OptoScreener allow for remote viewing, auditing, and monitoring, as well as for simultaneous connectivity to multiple checkpoint systems. Live remote viewing at a control center of images from all OptoScreener units provides security managers with live access to all detection information.

The OptoScreener allows plant security managers to keep track of screened items by storing all images in a centralized location. The database of stored images can be searched by time and date, making this a useful tool for auditing and traceability. Additionally, stored images can be reused for training purposes. To keep up to date with evolving threats, Optosecurity can provide updates to the threat database (weapons and liquids) and system software updates.

Remote monitoring capability allows for remote verification of the health status of the system at any time. It can also serve to automatically notify a service technician upon a failure or any event requiring maintenance or the attention of a service technician.

Closing the Gap
Although the nuclear power plant industry has demonstrated a strong track record in deploying powerful and effective systems securing these crucial infrastructure centers, only a constant vigilance and exploration of new and evolving checkpoint solutions will augment security and help seal any possible gaps. Considering that contemporary threats to critical infrastructure continue to evolve and terror groups are wellknown to constantly probe and explore these avenues, the checkpoint response must be unconventional and dynamic to meet such threats head-on. The OptoScreener provides a very unique and compelling answer to the leading checkpoint challenges. Designed to improve systems that virtually all nuclear power plants already have in place today, it is a technology solution crucial in helping close the security gap.