Latest Embassy News
2008 Press Releases
U.S. Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) Program Continues Cooperation with Slovak Customs
Bratislava, April 15, 2008
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA – U.S. technical experts from the U.S. National Nuclear Safety Administration will be in Donovaly, Slovakia from April 15-17, to demonstrate and donate state-of-the-art metal analyzers to Officers from the Slovak Customs directorate. The demonstration and donation are part of the Department of State’s ongoing collaboration with Slovak authorities under the auspices of the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program. Since 2003, the EXBS program as provided over $2 million in training and equipment to Slovakia. The U.S. Department of Energy’s International Nonproliferation Export Control Program (INECP), in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, will conduct the demonstration and deliver three portable XRF metal analyzers to the Customs Directorate of the Slovak Republic. The three metal analyzers, based on x-ray fluorescence (XRF) technology, will provide Slovak Customs Officers with a fast and noninvasive way to identify metals and prevent illicit shipments of strategic metals and commodities.
The small (1.6 kg), handheld XRF provides rapid, nondestructive elemental analysis of shipments of metals, scrap, and equipment. Its small size makes it easy to transport, providing Customs or other law-enforcement personnel with a quick, accurate way of checking the content of shipments, verifying manifests, and indentifying alloys and equipment with WMD-related applications.
The EXBS program works collaboratively with foreign governments to strengthen global efforts to prevent illicit transfers of materials, equipment, and technology related to the production of weapons of mass destruction.
