National lab to commercialize radiation detection technology for Homeland Security
Advanced portable detection system from
ORTEC scans cargo container for potentially
dangerous radioactive materials.
The ORTEC business unit of
AMETEK, Inc. has signed a
licensing agreement with the
University of California's
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
to commercialize its RadScout
radiation detection technology. ORTEC
will incorporate the technology into its
next generation of advanced, portable
nuclear detection systems.
These high-performance, high-resolution
portable systems will be used
at border crossings, cargo ship docks
and transportation terminals to detect
and differentiate between potentially
dangerous radioactive materials and
otherwise harmless radiation sources.
ORTEC plans to market the instruments
as the Detective and Detective-
EX. The detectors are part of a suite of
technologies offered by ORTEC for
Homeland Security.
“The detectors will provide first
responders, HAZMAT teams, fire
departments, government authorities
and others with the ability to screen
objects for potentially dangerous
nuclear material and determine quickly
whether or not they pose a threat.
Those include the more than six million
cargo containers that enter the
United States each year,” notes Jon
Kidder, Vice President and General
Manager of AMETEK Advanced
Measurement Technology (AMT) in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
“The RadScout represents a breakthrough
in radiation detector technology
by reducing existing bulky equipment
into a lightweight, battery-powered
device that can be either permanently
mounted or fully portable,”
comments Dr. Michael R. Anastasio,
Director of the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory.
The detector features a miniaturized
refrigeration system that eliminates the
need to carry liquid nitrogen to cool
the device's high-purity germanium
crystals. Those crystals are used to
detect minute amounts of neutrons and
gamma rays emitted by radioactive
materials.
RadScout incorporates ORTEC’s
high-purity germanium detector with a
miniaturized refrigeration system produced
by Hymatic Engineering Ltd.
Additional features of the easy-to-use
RadScout include an internal computer
with a full-function touch screen
that allows for remote data transmission,
real-time search and isotope
identification, memory-stick storage
and on-board field analysis capability.
ORTEC has more than 40 years of
experience in the design and manufacture
of highly sensitive radiation detectors.
They are used by government and
industrial laboratories, nuclear facilities
and medical research, and in
nuclear safeguards.
