Transport Radioactive Signatures

Christine Behnke
Sumeet Gupta
Brittany Owens
Jeremy Petak
Nicholas Watson

Mentor: Ian Gross

Facilitator: Art Stewart

As we deploy more and more radiation detectors into commercial sector we notice a significant number of "nuisance" alarms which originate from commercial products. These commercial products as we know contain trace quantities of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) which are perturbations to our goal of detection of illict trafficking of materials. My plan is to take the students to Watt Road weugh Station and introduce them to one way radiation detectors are deployed in an effort to improve homeland security. As important to detectinon is the ConOps (conduct of operations) for such deployments; a brief introduction to the law enforcement field will offer a real world application to our detection technology. Then, I plan to provide the students with the detection tools and reference materials to detect, identify, and quantify NORM materials in commerce. Upon successful completion of their class they should understand why certain commodities contain trace quantities of radioactive material and what isotopes are contained therein.

Transport Radioactive Signatures Photos