Bethpage-Tribune_1995-06-23

              Beth page
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YOUR OFFICIAL HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER
Serving Bethpage, Island Trees, Plainedge, Seaford, Old Bethpage & Plainview
VOL 28 NO 24 JUNE 23-29, 1995 40 CENTS
Hotel Fire In
Plainview Controlled
By Five Departments
Members of the Arson/Bomb
Squad are investigating a fire that
occurred on 6/19/95 in Plainview.
At 12:23 a.m., members of the
Plainview Fire Dept., along with
mutual aid from 5 other depart­ments,
including the Bethpage
F.D., totalling approximately 100
men, arid 10 pieces of fire appa­ratus,
responded to a fire at the
Comfort Inn, 333 S. Service Road,
Plainview.
The fire, which apparently
started in a room located on the
second floor, was under control
within an hour. The fire was
contained in one room with mod­erate
fire and water damage to
approximately 3 other rooms. A
large volume of smoke, which was
pumped through the ventilator
system, spread throughout
approximately 35 rooms.
It is estimated that 95 people,
including employees, were evac­uated
without injury. Guests Of the
motel were relocated to the Hol­iday
Inn in Plainview. ^ -
Det. Charles Miller of the Nas­sau
County Police Arson/Bomb
Squad, along with Fire Investiga­tor
Joseph Whittaker, were pres­ent
at the scene.
The fire is being deemed non
suspicious and undetermined inits
origin at this time.
Students Combat Graffiti
Oyster Bay Town Councilman Leonard B. Symons recently discussed
methods of combatting graffiti with a group of young students at the
H.B. Mattlin Middle School in Plainview. Here, the students display
road signs which were defaced by graffiti vandals. The signs were
brought in by Councilman Symons to demonstrate both their
unsightliness and the tax payer's cost of replacing them.
Northrop Grumman
To Develop Contraband
Detection System
A device that will detect con-trband
such as explosives, heroin,
and cocaine shipped in luggage
and other portable containers is
being developed by Northrop
Grumman Corporation.
Under a contract with the U.S.
Ajr Force, Northrop Grumman's
Advanced Technology arid Devel­opment
Center in Bethpage N.Y.,
will lead a team that will develop
and test a prototype Contrabaand
Detection System (CDS) over the
next 18 months. The contract,
funded by the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA), is worth
$4.6 million. With options, the total
value could reach $7 million.
Using a nuclear phenomena
called gamma resonance, the
system generates low-level radia­tion
in the form of gamma rays.
These rays are focused on lug­gage
or small parcels placed
inside large containers that are fed
into the CDS by a conveyor belt.
Certain contraband chemicals
will cause distinct gamma ray
absorption patterns. When a sus­picious
pattern is detected, an
alarm alerts the CDS operator.
The system will exhibit both 2-
D and 3-D images of an item so
the operator can examine it in
more detail without having to
remove it from the container. A
version of the CDS with four
detection stations is expected to
be capable of processing up to
2,000 packages an hour with a
detection probability of over 90
percent for most contraband, with
minimal false alarms.
Building a CDS prototype is
Phase II of a three-phase project.
During the Phase I requirements
study, the company worked with
organizations such as the Office
of National Drug Control Policy,
the U.S. Postal Service, the Fed­eral
Bureau of Investigation, the
Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S.
Customs, and the Federal Aviation'
Administration to determine their
detailed requirements. Phase III is
expected to include field tests with
the prototype.
Northrop Grumman team
members on this project include:
Scientific Innovations, Montauk,
N.Y., and TRIUMF, Vancouver,
B.C., a consortium of national labs
with expertise in positron emis­sion
tomography (PET scans), a
nuclear imaging technique similar
to the one that the CDS will use.
Northrop Grumman Corpora­tion,
based in Los Angeles, is a
leading designer, systems integra­tor,
and manufacturer of bomber,
fighter and surveillance aircraft, as
well as commercial and military
aerostructures, precision wea­pons,
space systems, electronic
countermeasures, and information
systems.
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