Pasadena company snags contract to expand nuclear monitoring

It has become increasingly difficult to stop the smuggling of nuclear material around the world. In a strange way, that may be good news for a Pasadena company, which recently snagged a $400 million federal contract to install its nuclear monitoring equipment in this country and around the world.

At U.S. border crossings, in every big U.S. seaport and at border sites around the globe, there’s a security device that scans for nuclear material. That’s the work of Tetra Tech in Pasadena.

The scanners are designed to catch people smuggling uranium and other radioactive substances. And that threat is real, said Christine Bent. She’s deputy director at NSDD, the Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence agency, which is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

“Radiological materials are pretty ubiquitous around the world because they’re used for a lot of good purposes,” Bent said, “like medical research.”

Nuclear smuggling rings have been broken up this year in the former Soviet states of Moldova and Georgia, Bent said. In the past year alone, there were three different attempts by smugglers to transport nuclear materials across the border between Georgia and Turkey. 

“The fact that we’ve seen recent cases of people actually trying to smuggle them, that has us very concerned,” Bent said. 

The $400 million contract awarded to Tetra Tech includes expanding its existing system, upgrading its technology and training security personnel. 

“This is a threat people should be concerned about, and the way to really effectively address the threat, it has to be through international partnerships – it’s not something we can just do alone,” Bent said.

“Having so many international partners overseas who care about this mission and keep attention on it,” Bent said, “that’s the best way for us to be successful over the long term.”  

Apparently it’s a hush-hush business – company officials in Pasadena said they could not comment in time for publication.