Protecting the Port of Memphis is one of the latest projects on the resume of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's SensorNet program.

An ORNL team worked with port officials and private companies to create an integrated system of sensors at the Presidents Island industrial complex on the Mississippi River. The idea is to detect any release of toxic chemicals and provide information directly to a 911 dispatch facility, alerting first responders such as the fire department's hazardous materials team.

"We've installed and tested it," said Jim Kulesz, a special projects manager at ORNL.

The Memphis setup is more than an early warning system. It includes the kind of software that taps real-time meteorological data to model plumes of toxic releases and provides helpful information to officials in charge of "consequence management," Kulesz said.

Computers would evaluate chemical releases and track the exposure risks to populations in their path, giving officials the information necessary to make decisions on evacuations and the medical response to incidents.

"If an event occurs, the dispatcher then will be able to know what the chemical is and the approximate location" of the release, Kulesz said.

With the initial data in hand, Memphis officials can operate a separate system that controls security cameras to confirm whether it's an actual chemical release or a false alarm, he said.

Similar SensorNet projects are under way at sites around the country.

The ORNL program is difficult to describe, but generally speaking, it helps connect dots in the U.S. war on terrorism.

Working with partners in government and industry, the Oak Ridge lab assembles systems to detect terrorist threats — chemical and biological, nuclear and radiological, or whatever may emerge in the future — and speed the flow of secure information.

A few years ago, in the post-9/11 frenzy about homeland security, SensorNet emerged as a concept of hanging sensors on cell-phone towers around the nation's cities. The detectors would be wirelessly connected to command centers to alert emergency responders and others with a need to know.

That concept is still at the heart of the SensorNet program, but the approach these days is more about developing flexible systems that meet tight standards. Those systems can be tailored to meet local needs, with the mobility to address threats that escalate and evolve.

Frank Denap, the program manager at ORNL, said SensorNet's funding this year is about $17.5 million.

The principal sponsor is the Office of Naval Research, but the Oak Ridge team works with military bases, federal and state agencies, and communities of all sizes.

ORNL is a federally funded laboratory, and it's not supposed to compete with private industry for work. Once systems are developed and polished to a prototype stage, the goal is to work with companies to establish the capabilities on a commercial basis and turn over the projects to them.

The lab also is working with academic partners, including Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee, on such things as enhanced security for the detection systems.

SensorNet in the future will dedicate more attention on the "knowledge sphere" and how to use the fusion of data from many sources to help capture perceived enemies, Denap said.

"What we see is an interesting marriage between the physical world and the cyber world," he said.

ORNL is wrapping up an experimental project at the Fort Bragg Army Base in North Carolina and working to install an operational system with commercial vendors.

"One of the major thrusts there is putting a 911 system in place that will give the sensors the ability to be treated just like a call from an end-user," Denap said. "If there's a sensor alert, it will appear (on the screen), and recommended actions will come up."

Bryan Gorman, an ORNL researcher working on the project, said in a statement: " Fort Bragg is a city with thousands of residents, more than 20 million square feet of office buildings, and all of the associated needs and demands placed on emergency services workers."

The SensorNet system integrates chemical, biological and nuclear sensors, as well as intrusion detectors, weather monitors, video surveillance and various technologies that control access to the Army base.

The ORNL team also is working with the Tennessee Highway Patrol and agencies in other states, such as Kentucky, to install threat-monitoring systems at interstate weigh stations.

Another project has begun at the Port of Charleston, S.C., establishing the capabilities to detect threats as cargo containers are unloaded from ships or loaded onto flatbed trucks.

Test systems established earlier in the nation's capital are ongoing. The ORNL team is developing mobile systems that can be used to support security at special events in Washington. Denap said another project involves shared resources at five military bases in the Washington area.

Kulesz is working as ORNL's team leader on the national Biological Warning and Incident Characterization System. Six national labs and other institutions are participating in that project.

Pilot tests have started at two major U.S. cities to establish capabilities for identifying the presence of biological agents — including a network that looks at trends of symptoms showing up at medical-care facilities — and activating response teams in the region.

"The threats are real," Kulesz said. "There is a very legitimate concern. We want to make sure we're prepared."