Skip to Content

Terror Net

December 1, 2004

Ever since the September 11 terrorist attacks, federal agencies have been wishing for a system capable of issuing a nationwide alert at the first sign of a chemical, biological, or radiological attack. Now such a system is undergoing trials in Tennessee.

Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the new system consists of sensor packages attached to structures such as cell-phone towers. The packages will include detectors for airborne chemicals and radioisotopes, and for weather changes. The intent of the system – which is being tested in Knoxville, Nashville, and other locations – is to detect plumes of contaminants, predict their spread, and quickly alert command centers. In a 2002 test, prototype sensors successfully detected discharges of simulated sarin gas in three cities 140 to 270 kilometers apart and dispatched pertinent data in less than two minutes. The current trial will test the system on an even larger scale.

The Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and other organizations are sharing the cost of developing the system; at least $12 million has been assigned to it for the coming year. “At this point, we are not deployed nationwide, but we’ve demonstrated the scalability of the technology,” says Jim Kulesz, special-projects manager at Oak Ridge. Observers say the technology, while promising, is not a panacea. If fully deployed, says Paul Sereiko, president of Needham, MA–based wireless-sensor maker Sensicast Systems, it “will provide an excellent early-warning system for wide-area contaminant monitoring.” But, he adds, additional local monitoring will still be needed.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.