Oak Ridge National Laboratory is using the state of Tennessee as a testing ground for SensorNet, and that's critical to development of this early-warning system against chemical releases and other forms of terrorism.
Various sensors and communications equipment already are installed at sites in Oak Ridge, Knoxville and Nashville, with others planned for Memphis, Chattanooga and the Tri-Cities area.

"What we'd like to do is make Tennessee a large-scale test bed, placing sensors based upon the threat assessment and ultimately for long-term use by state folks," said Jim Kulesz, a special projects manager at ORNL. "We also want to demonstrate that our system is scalable."

The research effort isn't stopping at the state's boundaries. Not by any means.

The ORNL group is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for research projects in Washington, D.C., and New York City, combining efforts to track weather patterns in complex urban environments and to monitor plume routes in the event of hazardous releases.

The latest SensorNet project is taking shape at Fort Bragg, N.C., where the Oak Ridge lab is working with the U.S. Army to protect the military's resources - human and otherwise.

"The Fort Bragg work is totally separate," Kulesz said. "It's a combination of sensors and other technologies for the total installation."

The idea there is to build an overall base communications system, incorporating 911 functions, video cameras and perimeter security into technology units that also monitor for chemical, biological and nuclear hazards.

The original SensorNet concept was to hang sensors from cell-phone towers around the United States, providing links to command centers that would rapidly alert first responders to airborne hazards in their area.

That concept continues to evolve. Flexibility is important, because whatever infrastructure emerges from ORNL and other institutions needs to be adaptable to new technologies as they advance and improve.

"With proper design, the SensorNet backbone can be used as a consequence management system to rapidly respond to a chemical, biological or radiological event," Kulesz said in a prepared statement on the project.

"By strategically locating and connecting remote sensors on existing commercial and government infrastructures, critical information can be sent to a command center within minutes of an event."

The goal is to provide a reliable and secure system that accurately tracks a hazardous release in real time and predicts where it's headed and how quickly it will reach populated areas. That would enable first responders to make a difference in saving lives and reducing health effects.

"They will know the exact agent involved and immediately execute the appropriate treatment," Kulesz said.

SensorNet remains in the development stages. It will take big bucks to expand the system and deploy it nationally or even regionally.

ORNL's funding so far has come through the Office of Naval Research, Defense Threat Reduction Agency. In fiscal 2003, that funding was $2.9 million, and it's supposed to be $6.2 million this year (arriving any day, according to Kulesz).

The proposed amount for fiscal 2005 is $20 million.

There are other detection-and-warning systems under development elsewhere. If the SensorNet project is to continue to progress, it must gain the support of the Department of Homeland Security.
Frank Libutti, the department's undersecretary for information analysis and infrastructure protection, came to Tennessee last month and reportedly came away impressed by a SensorNet demonstration.