ASME expands its role in movement toward global homeland security

Emily M. Smith
ASME NEWS

Within a year of Sept. 11, ASME formed the Critical Assets Protection Initiative to help the U.S. government formulate practices and strategies to protect against future attacks.

As the issue of homeland security has become a global concern, ASME is expanding its role in enabling homeland security to embrace other countries where maintaining similar concerns is a priority.

John G. Voeller

The subject of homeland security will be addressed in November during ASME's International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Washington, D.C. The keynote session will feature two speakers talking about the role of engineers in the homeland security effort.

John G. Voeller, a senior vice president and chief technical officer at Black and Veatch who is chair of ASME's Critical Assets Protection Initiative will be one of the keynote speakers.

He talked with ASME NEWS about the role engineers will play in the effort to establish homeland security.

ASME NEWS: What is the scope of homeland security as an issue for engineers?

Voeller: The basis of engineering includes four fundamental abilities. All apply very specifically to homeland security. First is the ability to take well-established, proven techniques and apply them reliably and appropriately. That will be critical. Countries that have suffered these assaults for much longer have developed comprehensive and successful plans to deal with many of the most likely problems.

Second is the ability to devise new applications for existing technology, technology that was created to solve different kinds of problems. In many countries, overt attacks on people and resources is not part of an engineer's normal risk management and control considerations. Before new research and development efforts are launched, engineers should consider how existing technology can be used in new ways because any dollar spent in replication is a dollar not spent on protection.

The ability to look at a problem differently, of discerning some unique aspect others have not seen is necessary. We've seen some extremely novel solutions, such as a stand-off chromatography unit with a range in miles that can analyze air streams for contaminants in installations, come from completely oblique directions and distant quarters.

The ability to think in parallel tracks, is the fourth ability. Anything developed for homeland security should consider how it might also be used for normal operation and maintenance of infrastructure and societal resources. This 'dual-use' strategy will require an unprecedented collaboration between commercial industry and military and intelligence entities.

ASME NEWS: What will the role of the engineering community at large be in supporting homeland security initiatives?

Voeller: The engineering community is enormous in both the number and diversity of knowledge and experience it can bring to bear on problems and issues. ASME's Critical Assets Protection Initiative [CAPI] was formed to provide a conduit for this to take place with a minimum of effort by homeland security departments and maximum responsiveness for the country.

The following is an abbreviated list of all the roles we believe ASME and CAPI can play in supporting homeland security and related agencies.

1.) Provide first responders to incidents with support and guidance in rescue, recovery, stabilization and mitigation activities.

2.) Provide forensic expertise in a variety of areas to help assess damage, cause, sequence, fate consequences, etc.

3.) Provide guidance on temporarily replacing critical assets shortly after any incident to maintain local integrity of the function and its social support.

4.) Provide guidance on revisions to future facilities that will allow them better protection in future incidents in a safer and sustainable manner.

5.) Provide a detailed examination of standards and practices in industry to infuse security concerns and solutions into them in concert with the guidelines set forth by homeland security departments or other agencies combined with feedback from commercial industry and state and local governments about what is sufficient and sustainable.

6.) Provide vectored research in topics such as risk management and analysis where ASME is recognized as an expert from all its work in several industries such as nuclear and mechanical equipment, involving natural and phenomena based risk and understands how different the mechanisms of analysis will need to be when dealing with overt assault or disruption.

7.) Provide expert testimony on government concerns about critical assets, vulnerability, protection methods and alternatives.

8.) Provide a critical conduit for homeland security departments to be aware of commercial efforts directed at security that are being funded and resourced by industry that eliminate the need for government expenditure but that will seek homeland security confirmation of validity within homeland security guidelines.

9.) Provide a credible and verifiable channel for communications on technical issues related to homeland security in industrial and commercial facilities where the nature of the operation, maintenance and exposure are often centered around mechanical-related elements.

10. Provide certification support and training for anticipated public licensing and validation of skills and knowledge related to homeland security. This is a mature skill in ASME that will extend strongly into areas such as records management, information access and other areas critical to the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection where current public policy is almost the reverse of what we anticipate will be required by DHS.

11.) Provide training in many aspects of homeland security to those who design, build, operate and maintain critical infrastructure.

12.) Provide a conduit to education to ensure that the principles and concerns related to practical consideration of risk and appropriate methods of mitigation are infused into engineering curriculums.

13.) Expand the current strong path between industry and education for research and development to ensure that needed topics and anticipated needs are addressed.

ASME NEWS: When it comes to security, how does society balance doing enough with doing too much?

Voeller: In the U.S., the development of a comprehensive risk model that is strongly integrated across all the interdependent sectors of industry and government is a key concern of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as identified in their recent briefing to CAPI by the Under Secretary of Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection.

The project already proposed by ASME's Risk Team will examine these issues very directly from the theoretical advances needed to the public communications process that will also be critical once a plan is formulated. The outcome of this and other efforts will likely set the tone for a national guideline that can be replicated in other countries that don't already have something in place.

This is already being called for by public officials as exemplified by the recent story of the city manager of St. Louis discovering that the simple elevation of the national Alert Status to Orange cost his city $500,000 in added police costs even though there was no confirmation of need.

The public will respond with similar deflection and skepticism until we have a comprehensive picture they can understand of what is enough and what the real vulnerability is to them and their businesses. Just as ASME is seen internationally as the authority on certain engineering topics, it can be a similarly compelling communicator here just as it was in developing an authoritative, but appropriate analytical basis for many critical nuclear facilities in their Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. It's interesting to note that the same team of ASME, Westinghouse and Hartford Steam Boiler who were instrumental in alleviating public terror regarding steam engine boiler explosions and railroad train braking have come together again to examine how to manage a public threat for public good.

ASME NEWS: How can interested engineers become directly involved in homeland security either through ASME, an employer, or on their own?

Voeller: I would recommend that any engineer assume that whether they become involved in a particular department of homeland security or the issue of homeland security generally, seek educational opportunities regarding the real issues and monitor the standards and tools they use for changes precipitated by this issue.

They can start by examining the http://www.dhs.gov Web site as it is well organized, very educational and well maintained. I recommend attendance at the ASME Congress in November, www.asme.org/congress03 which will contain a day-long track on homeland security divided into sessions that are focused by industry sector. Engineers should also monitor any directives their companies are receiving from their country's homeland security agencies regarding changes in their processes and controls because of homeland security concerns.

It is easy to over-emphasize security at the individual, corporate and national level because the consequences of recent examples of such actions were so horrible and long-lasting. However, the bulk of terrorist events world-wide in the past century were much more specific, isolated and did not target money or social functionality and operation.

A terrorist seeks to confuse and incite fear by targeting places where people normally feel safe. An examination of terrorist incidents that number in the thousands in some countries, and what was learned in those cases will help countries like the United States balance the effort with the many other things engineers can and should do for society and themselves.

 

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