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U.S. Detection Office Starts New Round of Tests By Joe Fiorill WASHINGTON — The U.S. Domestic Nuclear Detection Office this month is conducting its second major series of equipment tests, examining the performance of portable devices in detecting radiation sources ranging from common industrial materials to plutonium (see GSN, July 20, 2005). After testing fixed portal-type monitors in October, the Homeland Security Department office this week began a monthlong series of tests on existing and “next-generation” portable detectors. In particular, the office is trying to learn about the devices’ range and their ability to identify various threats. “A critical component of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office’s program is high-fidelity testing and evaluation using test objects and configurations representative of actual threats,” office Director Vayl Oxford said in a release. “Characterization of detection systems will provide for more-educated acquisition and deployment decisions.” Nuclear materials used in the tests will include plutonium and highly enriched uranium, office spokeswoman Tracy Tiell said in an interview this week. The office is testing hand-held, backpack and vehicle-mounted detectors, Tiell said. “The hand-held and the backpacks will … have a conveyance of material that will go by on the test track in front of these detectors. There are also the mobile units — the vehicles, vans in this case, will drive by a source, whether it’s special nuclear material or just a common industrial product,” she said. All detectors being tested this month are of the passive variety, Tiell said. Passive detectors work by sensing radiation emitted naturally by sources, while active detectors externally stimulate radiation. The tests are being conducted at the office’s testing ground within the Energy Department’s remote Nevada Test Site. Oak Ridge Creates Detection CenterIn related news, Oak Ridge National Laboratory this week announced the creation of the Center for Radiation Detection Materials and Systems. The Tennessee laboratory said in a release that the center would “establish ORNL as the nation’s central national laboratory for innovation and development in the field of radiation detection materials and systems.” The center will bring together disparate radiation-detection projects at the laboratory “into a program with more focus on major goals,” center Director Lynn Boatner said in the release. “There is a lot of expertise here, but we have lacked a cohesive program,” Boatner said. The center is expected to focus on developing new crystals that react to radiation, according to Boatner, and to work on placing the laboratory’s radiation-detection technology in the marketplace. The technologies, said Boatner, would be useful in detecting radiological “dirty bombs” and stolen nuclear weapons, as well as in verifying countries’ compliance with international nuclear agreements. Laboratory spokesman Mike Bradley said today in an interview that the facility has a 60-year history of detection work that was until now scattered among the laboratory’s divisions. “Heretofore … it’s not had all that research and those developments under one roof and under one coordinated organizational structure,” Bradley said. It was not immediately clear what relationship the Oak Ridge center would have to the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, although Bradley said some laboratory scientists might already be working with the Homeland Security office. Oxford said last April as his office was being set up that it would seek to “ensure that the nation proceeds with a single, comprehensive prevention and detection strategy.”
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