Detecting terrorist threats

 2 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

UNL chemists hope to develop devices to detect bombs used by terrorists and suicide bombers on airplanes, trains and subways.

BY MELISSA LEE | Lincoln Journal Star

Gerard Harbison’s frugal ways almost led him straight to the site of a terrorist attack.

[+]Enlarge

UNL's Gerald Harbison

UNL's Gerald Harbison

After attending a conference in London last summer, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln chemistry professor stopped at his sister’s for a quick visit. As he left to catch his flight home, he remarked that he’d rather take a train to the airport than a pricey cab.

His sister chided him: “Don’t be a cheapskate.”

At the last minute, Harbison followed her advice — and just missed a series of London train bombings that left dozens dead and hundreds injured.

A year later, Harbison is working to prevent attacks like that one.

He’s one of six UNL chemists hoping to develop devices that can detect deadly peroxide-based bombs used by terrorists and suicide bombers on airplanes, trains and subways.

The devices would be installed in airports and train and subway stations and would spot the chemical before it could make its way on board.

“These new bombs, they’re horribly unstable. ... They’re tough to detect,” Harbison said. “It’s scary.”

Existing detectors can spot some nitrate-based bombs, he said, but increasingly, terrorists are turning to peroxide, a highly sensitive, explosive chemical that can be easily — and cheaply — cooked with over-the-counter ingredients.

Google “peroxide bomb,” and you’ll find no shortage of shockingly simple but deadly recipes. It seems little wonder, then, that the chemical is a popular weapon among suicide bombers who seem to have no regard for their own lives.

“They’re the explosives of choice for terrorists,” said Pat Dussault, a fellow chemistry professor and leader of the team.

“Absolutely, they’re a threat. They’re very, very dangerous.”

The team is developing two different detection devices. Harbison is working on one that would pick up low-level radio waves emitted by peroxide.

The device could be wrapped around subway station doors or airport security sensors, and it would flag the unique waves peroxide compounds send out, he said.

A second device, being developed by Associate Chemistry Professor Jody Redepenning, would essentially “sniff out” the chemical’s presence.

Currently, there’s no detector sensitive enough to sniff peroxide — it smells a bit like bleach, so it’s virtually impossible to distinguish between potential terrorists and innocent people who simply overdid their laundry.

Redepenning hopes to create a sensor sensitive enough to detect peroxide even at low levels.

“This is a completely unknown method,” Dussault said. “We’ve got all sorts of approaches.”

Team members say their preliminary lab work is promising. Now, they’re awaiting Department of Homeland Security funds that would allow them to build actual models of each detection device.

Said Dussault: “We want to contribute to something that’s a fairly big problem.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.