Correction: Canberra, Raytheon also in on DNDO contract

In the last TransSec e-newsletter, we announced that Thermo Electron Corp. had won a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contract to develop high-performance advanced spectroscopic portal (ASP) monitors. True enough, but what we didn’t tell you was that the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), part of the DHS, also selected Canberra Industries and Raytheon Co. for the other two of the total of three contracts.

Canberra’s systems are based on high-purity germanium technology, while Thermo Electric and Raytheon base their systems on sodium-iodide technology. DNDO Director Vayl Oxford declined to give exact details on the contract values, but said they were split “pretty close to one-third each.” Canberra said the value of its award was US$11.7 million.

The DNDO contracts are for a single year with four-year extension options, and cover the first 80 of a planned total of 1400 advanced detection systems. The monitors will be used to detect and interdict the entry into the U.S. of illicit nuclear weapons and radiological materials.

TransSec regrets the omission.