Wiring the Ports.

Byline: Jesse Ellison

The prospect of terrorists' getting hold of nuclear weapons became a tangible fear in the weeks after September 11. As the United States scrambled to assess its weak spots, customs officials took a closer look at the nation's seaports, and shut them down. Things got moving again, but many security experts don't think ports in the United States and other countries are as secure as they should be. The main problem: a shipping container is subject to byzantine regulations and many levels of bureaucracy in its journey from home port to port of call, creating myriad security holes.

One port operator in Philadelphia recently decided to take an unusual tack. It is implementing its own high-tech container management system that improves the port's ability to detect problem shipments and to react to emergencies if they occur.

Philadelphia's strategy addresses a key vulnerability: the practice of prescreening shipments. For one thing, it relies on the honor system--officials trust captains to report contents accurately, but the information is rarely verified. And the screening systems in place can't detect nuclear material, says Stephen Flynn, a former Coast Guard commander and now senior fellow for national-security ...