The TSA is retiring 250 of their high-tech “backscatter” screening machines in the coming weeks, easing both healthcare and privacy woes from frequent travelers that don’t trust the devices. Are they really going away for good though?

Backscatter makers Rapiscan and the Transportation Security Administration announced the ending of a partnership just last month, and by June 1 the TSA will have removed the space-age body screeners from around 200 airports across the country. In a recent interview with Federal Times, though, TSA spokesperson David Castelveter says that the roughly $40 million worth of machinery could be moved elsewhere to provide airport-style security. 

“We are working with other government agencies to find homes for them,” Castelveter tells reporter Andy Medici. “There is an interest clearly by DoD and the State Department to use them — and other agencies as well.”

A traveler undergoes a full body scan performed by Transportation Security Administration agents at the Denver International Airport in 2010. PHOTO: John Moore

According to Medici, those machines may soon be coming to federal buildings. With a deadline looming and Congress’ challenge to alter controversial “naked” images left unanswered, though, the TSA confirmed last month that their $5 million contract with Rapiscan would be coming to a close and technologies would be shelved. 

Now just weeks after that announcement, Medici’s report suggests that Americans won’t be saying goodbye to the backscatters anytime soon. Although the TSA has removed at least 76 of the machines from airports already and intends on having the other 174 gone by the June 1 deadline, Castelveter wants them elsewhere.

In the January 17 press release from Rapiscan that announces the end of their backscatter deal with the TSA, the company hinted at other deals and deployments. 

Late last year in November, Rapiscan announced on its website that it had been awarded a $15 million contract from an unnamed, “critical U.S. government agency” for baggage scanning technology. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) made a statement last month condemning the use of the devices and insisted “The American public must be assured that these machines will not be used in any other public federal facility.” Bob Burns of the TSA Blog says the units will be “stored until they can be redeployed to other mission priorities within the government.”