LOCH story on successful demo
Chuck Bagley returned my call and said PR would only
be released if new material event - this demo was a
repeat (except for 4 containers and different explosives instead of 3 containers) during the San Diego demo. To me the significance has to due with the audience
at the Captitol since Department of Defense as well as
other governmental parties will be evaluating ELF according
to Charlie Territo Klink's Press Secretary.
Land-mine detection test staged outside U.S. Capitol
Thursday, September 14, 2000
By Rachel Smolkin, Post-Gazette National Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Capitol grounds were transformed into a land
mine test site yesterday as developers of a prototype detector demonstrated
how it might speed the removal of mines that kill or maim tens of thousands of
people each year.
A portable, cylindrical probe successfully discovered and identified explosives
during a mid-afternoon demonstration on the House lawn, where Capitol
police buried three samples of land mine explosives in boxes of dirt.
The demonstration was sponsored by Rep. Ron Klink, D-Murrysville, who is
campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.
Klink noted that Western Pennsylvania is home to many East European
immigrants from countries such as Bosnia and Croatia, where land mines have
made large swaths of countryside uninhabitable.
Every year, an estimated 26,000 people are killed or maimed by land mines.
Nearly 10,000 are children. The Red Cross estimates there are as many as
110 million active land mines, most of them left in the ground in the wake of
wars.
The new technology, called ELF (Eliminate Land mines Forever) was
developed by the Austin, Texas-based company Loch Harris Inc. after nearly
five years of research and development.
Mine sweepers currently use hand-held rods to probe the ground every few
inches, which is very dangerous. Officials estimate one mine clearer dies for
every 5,000 mines removed.
Loch Harris developers say their product would make mine removal much
safer by alerting sweepers to the location and type of explosives they are
confronting. ELF combines X-ray and florescent technologies to identify the
explosive ingredients in mines. It can detect mines two meters away under soil
or water.
The United States has agreed to stop using anti-personnel land mines in all
countries except Korea by 2003 but has not signed the Mine Ban Treaty,
which bans the use, production, export and stockpiling of anti-personnel land
mines.
Loch Harris officials are in preliminary discussions with the Department of
Defense but do not know when their product might be approved for use in the
field. They expect to meet with defense officials for follow-up discussions
within the next few weeks. The developers have not determined how much
the product will cost.
The demonstration yesterday was not intended to be a perfect simulation of a
minefield, but rather was supposed to show the potential of the technology. |
