Nuclear Detection at a Competetive Price

Nuclear Detection at a Competetive Price

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A DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) program aimed at preventing nuclear threats was successfully demonstrated as part of DARPA’s SIGMA program. SIGMA was launched in 2014 with the goal of creating a cost-effective, continuous radiation-monitoring network able to cover a large city or region. The new technology shown a network of smartphone-sized mobile devices that can detect the tiniest traces of radioactive materials. Combined with larger detectors along major roadways, bridges, other fixed infrastructure, and in vehicles, the new network devices promise significantly enhanced awareness of radiation sources and greater advance warning of possible threats.

According to darpa.mil, during the month-long test, the system provided more than a 100-fold increase in ability to locate and identify sources of radiation as compared to currently installed systems. All sources of radiation that SIGMA sensors identified were non-threatening, but the system proved how it could pinpoint the location and intensity of a source and specify, in each case, the type of radiation to which it was alerting authorities.

Vincent Tang, program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office said: “We are extremely pleased with SIGMA’s achievements to date in advancing radiation detection. It’s new abilities will make cities in the United States and around the world safer against a wide variety of radiological and nuclear threats”.

The pocket-sized radiation “pager” sensors can be easily worn on a person’s belt, cost one-tenth of conventional sensors, and are up to 10 times faster in detecting gamma and neutron radiation. Moreover, the program achieved its price goal of 10,000 pocket-sized detectors for $400 per unit.

SIGMA has been refining the algorithms for improving the radiation-sensing technology in its devices based on experience over the past two years in more than 10 real-world deployments and exercises with local, state, federal and military units, including tests in the nation’s capital. A large-scale test deployment of more than 1,000 detectors is being planned for Washington, D.C. later this year.

Ultimately, Tang noted, SIGMA is expected to provide foundational capabilities for a range of detection approaches, among them two under development: the Radiation Awareness and Interdiction Network (RAIN), which is being designed to monitor highways and roadways for vehicle-born threats, and the Mobile Urban Radiation Search (MURS) project, which aims to provide an advanced mobile detection capability that could adjudicate detection alarms encountered by SIGMA or RAIN.

In addition to the handheld devices, large SIGMA prototype detectors with increased capabilities and reduced costs that can be deployed at fixed sites or in vehicles are also coming on line. For example, large SIGMA neutron detectors have now shown twice the sensitivity compared to existing neutron-detection drive-through portals. Multiple vendors reached the price target of $5,000 per unit, which is approximately one-tenth the cost of today’s comparable large neutron detectors, while achieving or exceeding this required performance. Hundreds of large SIGMA detectors are in the process of being networked for gamma and neutron radiation detection at a number of critical locations and on vehicles.