Coming Soon? Radiation Detectors for Smartphones

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Radiation detectors are getting smaller and cheaper

A handheld radiation camera developed by the University of Michigan engineering researchers offers nuclear plant operators a faster way to find potentially dangerous hot spots and leaky fuel rods.

The new Polaris-H detector lays a gamma-ray map over an image of a room, pinpointing radiation sources with unprecedented precision. At least four U.S. nuclear power plants are using versions of the camera, which is now available commercially through the U-M spinoff company H3D.

“This technology enables people to ‘see’ radiation,” said Zhong He, a professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at U-M and CEO of H3D. “This should enable the early detection of leaks by locating abnormal radiation, a much better understanding of radiation sources to protect workers, and it could be a tool for the cleanup effort of nuclear waste and fallout, such as in Fukushima in Japan.”

According to HLS News Wire radiation safety professionals have called the device revolutionary. They say it could become the new standard.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

“We can find things now in 30 minutes that could take weeks to find before,” said Robert Hite, radiation protection manager at the Cook Nuclear Plant near St. Joseph, Michigan, and early adopter of Polaris-H. “All of our technology that we have — that I’ve worked with for thirty years — doesn’t touch what this shows us.”

A U-M release reports that a radiation imager offers plant managers like Hite a quicker way to identify and locate problems, including radioactive buildup in pipes, stray radioactive particles in otherwise clean areas and leaky fuel rods. Also, in the event of an accident, an imager could monitor radiation plumes and point out contaminated areas.

The gamma camera operates at room temperature, which is an improvement for the many plants that currently work with cumbersome, cryogenically cooled detectors. Room-temperature radiation imagers have been poor performers in the past, so many nuclear power plants in the United States rely on non-imaging detectors to find contamination. Locating the source of the problem often means moving the non-imaging detector around the contaminated area to find areas with high radiation counts.

While traditional imagers cost upwards of $200,000, the new cameras are priced below $100,000.