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Summary
Pages 3-7

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From page 3...
... This interim report is based on testing done before 2008, plans for and preliminary results from tests done in 2008, and the agency's draft cost-benefit analysis as of October 2008. The committee received briefings on the performance test results and analysis and on the cost-benefit analysis, but the committee did not receive written reports on those topics by February 2009, when the interim report entered the Academy peer review process.
From page 4...
... RECOMMENDED APPROACH FOR TESTING AND EVALUATION To make the testing and evaluation more scientifically rigorous, the committee recommends an iterative approach with modeling and physical testing complementing each other. The threat space -- that is, the set of possible threat objects, configurations, surrounding cargoes, and conditions of transport -- is so large and multidimensional that DNDO needs an analytical basis for understanding the capabilities of detectors for screening cargo.
From page 5...
... As the first step in this process DHS should deploy its currently unused low-rate initial production ASPs for primary and secondary inspection at various sites as extended operational testing. Such deployment, even on this limited scale, would provide additional data concerning their operation, reliability, and performance, and allow DHS to better assess their capabilities in multiple environments without investing in a much larger acquisition at the outset.
From page 6...
... ; however, other factors relating to the costs and benefits of the proposed ASP program will also need to be taken into account. DHS' definition of a SIOE is a modest set of goals: As noted above, the increases in operational efficiency do not by themselves appear to outweigh the cost increases from replacing the PVT/RIID combination with ASPs, based on DNDO's preliminary estimates, and the criteria do not require significantly improved ability to detect SNM in primary screening (see Sidebar 3.1)
From page 7...
... The benefit assessment should show how this program contributes to improving security with respect to prevention of the detonation of a nuclear device or radiological weapon in the United States. Because this is the primary objective of the ASP program, a cost-benefit analysis that is silent on this subject would be incomplete.


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