Narrator: This is Science Today. The San Francisco International Airport is the first of three federalized airports to take part in a national pilot program to screen passenger aircraft cargo for explosives. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is among a handful of agencies taking part in the Air Cargo Explosives Detection Pilot Program. Howard Hall is project leader of the Lab's Countermeasures Test Beds.

Hall: During the course of this pilot, we'll be working closely with the Transportation Security Administration, the airport and the air carriers. We will test screening technology that has been proven in the checked baggage environment. We will use modeling and simulating tools to understand and extend our knowledge of what we learned here at San Francisco to other airports and much of the data that we collect will provide a unique data set for researchers developing new technology for screening air cargo.

Narrator: The pilot program will begin in late summer and then expand to two other, as yet unannounced airports. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.