$12,000 DIY Nuke-Detector mocks Security Department's $1.15 billion project
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing to capture terrorists who make use of nuke weapons. The Department boasts of radiation scanner to tighten the security on US ports and stop the nukes smuggling in shipping containers. It will cost around $1.15 billion.
Do-it-yourself volunteer researchers society states that they have nearly finished a device which is portable as well as costing only about $12,000. Stanley Glaros The Candia Lab weapons subcontractor informed that they have already completed a boat-mounted scanner that will detect the nuke radiations from faraway. The group wants to publish this innovation in the 'Review of Scientific Instruments'.
At present, 14-foot long nuke-radiations detector pillar costing $180,000, have been employed to detect gamma rays and high-energy neutrons to trace out container-laden trucks driven between them. But according to 'Glaros' this technology is not very impressive.
International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that there were 650 cases of illegal transportation of nuclear and radiological materials across the world from 1993 to 2004.
Vayl Oxford, director of the (DNDO), said at a July 14th press conference announcing the project:
We are ordering 80 units initially into New York container terminal. We're also taking some out to our permanent test bed in the Nevada test site for follow-on testing.... Starting early in this calendar year, we'll begin deploying these systems to Customs and Border Protection into the secondary screening location.San Francisco Police Department squads patrol boats around local shipping lanes using a common 1-inch-diameter Ranger sodium iodide detector to detect radiation at 23 separate ports including, San Francisco Lightship Buoy, Oakland container docks and Richmond oil docks.
The team is now testing a domestic detector based on a 4-inch x 4-inch x 16-inch sodium iodide crystal detector, developed by Saint Gobain, a subordinate of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain situated in Paris.
This monitor uses the same technology used in other systems at ports in the country.
The crystal is like Frodo's sword, clarified a Glaros associate. It starts to glow when the bad stuff's around, kind of a blue fluorescence that also detect plutonium-fueled bomb.This Glaros homemade detector can be placed anywhere, the team's ideal place is pilot boats that meet container ships offshore.
The detector's blue glow is accepted by an Ortec Digibase photo-multiplier, collected into dynodes, converted to a signal and then run through a multichannel analyzer to identify radiological mark, which are then sent to a laptop where a Maestro 32 computer program compares them against an isotope database.
The team conducted experiment with various size, and distance to pick a system that is portable, as well as large enough to collect data from dozens of container ships that cruise daily.
Thanks:Mark Rutherford
via: wired
