Weapons of Mass Destruction

“For the most of the nations municipalities, urban and rural alike, the threat or risk posed by terrorism has introduced an expanded set of hazards. These hazards include chemical, biological, radiological, /nuclear, and explosive” (Bullock, 2006). Weapons of mass destruction have become a prominent concern of homeland security along with other government agencies. The mere existence of CBRNE may cause a serious threat to the United States in the future. Prior to September 11, 2001 defense against weapons of mass destruction was not the prominent focus for federal government. “The obvious lack of direction caused significant confusion for the state and local governments who as a result were heavily unprepared for terrorist attacks” (Bullock, 2006). With terrorism also not being a rare occurrences know a days the government has to implement ways to deter the use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States and its allies. So this means the United States has to combine technology, and know how not only to counter-terrorism, but to deter the use of weapons of mass destruction. Weapons of mass destruction have been around for a long period of time. People only think of biological or nuclear explosives as being weapons of mass destruction. A weapon of mass destruction is anything that is able to inflict intentional harm to people over a wide spread area. When dealing with homeland security weapons of mass destruction is not a subject to be take lightly or for granted. This department day in and day out sits around and try to improvise ways to deter the use of weapons of mass destruction. Homeland security is recently taking a more technological approach to stop the use of weapons of mass destruction. “Dangerous times call for high tech answers. Today’s detection and neutralization system help guard our boarders against people, cargo, and vehicles that may be carrying explosives, arms, and contraband that could include nuclear, or pathogenic materials” (Allan, 2006).
In this discussion I will emphasize of the technologies being used to detect weapons of mass destruction. ”X-rays which are widely used in airports, government buildings, courthouses, and conventional fixed-location and limited –mobility X-ray systems are now giving way to portable, lower cost, back scatter X-ray imagers that can be set up anywhere” (Allan, 2006). The technological advances in X-ray imagery can know allow use to detect undetectable items. “The enhanced detection of organic materials like sheet and bulk explosives, narcotics, and plastic weapons missed with conventional transmission X-ray systems” (Allan, 2006). The systems detects objects it scanned by colorizing molecules in an uncluttered display. The most valuable X-ray imaging can be augmented with neutron based system to detect “dirty bombs”. “Two government programs aimed at preventing terrorist from using cargo shipping g to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the USA are so badly run that they may be putting the nation at greater risk of attack, government investigators said” (Hall, 2005). Micro leveling sensing is another technological advancement intended to keep weapons of mass destructions out of the hands of the reckless. The reason being that micro leveling is a positive and productive source toward stopping weapons of mass destruction is this device detects against chemicals, biological agents and explosives this device is also at low cost when it comes to the governments budget rate. Micro leveling has been sampled and tested in several toxins such as ammonium hydroxide, toluene diisocyanate, and form aldenyde and allyl alcohol. Micro leveling sensing is also very effective in ultrasounds is important when trying to detect materials that are in moving cargo shipments. When this device is used for cargo packaging it inspects the use of neutrons through imaging and it identifies concealed explosives and