6 U.S.C. § 981a — Pilot integrated scanning system

Not later than 90 days after October 4, 2006, the Secretary^* of Homeland Security (referred to in this section as the “Secretary”) shall designate three foreign seaports through which containers pass or are transshipped to the United States to pilot an integrated scanning system that couples nonintrusive imaging equipment and radiation detection equipment, which may be provided by the Megaports Initiative of the Department^* of Energy. In making designations under this subsection, the Secretary shall consider three distinct ports with unique features and differing levels of trade volume.

The Secretary shall collaborate with the Secretary of Energy and cooperate with the private sector and host foreign government to implement the pilot program under this subsection.

scan all containers destined for the United States that transit through the terminal;

electronically transmit the images and information to the container security initiative personnel in the host country and/or Customs and Border Protection personnel in the United States for evaluation and analysis;

resolve every radiation alarm according to established Department procedures;

utilize the information collected to enhance the Automated Targeting System or other relevant programs; and

store the information for later retrieval and analysis.

has a sufficiently low false alarm rate for use in the supply chain;

is capable of being deployed and operated at ports overseas, including consideration of cost, personnel, and infrastructure required to operate the system;

is capable of integrating, where necessary, with existing systems;

does not significantly impact trade capacity and flow of cargo at foreign or United States ports; and

provides an automated notification of questionable or high-risk cargo as a trigger for further inspection by appropriately trained personnel.

an evaluation of the lessons derived from the pilot program implemented under this section;

an analysis of the efficacy of the Automated Targeted System or other relevant programs in utilizing the images captured to examine high-risk containers;

an evaluation of software that is capable of automatically identifying potential anomalies in scanned containers; and

a plan and schedule to expand the integrated scanning system developed under this section to other container security initiative ports.