Nuclear detectionInternational collaborative effort to develop better radiation detection tool
In mid-February, the Flash Portal Project was launched with the aim of furthering the development and testing of a new technology to detect shielded nuclear materials
A little more than a month ago, the FLASH Portal Project was launched in Zurich, Switzerland. FLASH is an international collaboration effort dedicated to improving public security against nuclear and radiological threats.
Artis Radiation Detectors of Zurich, Switzerland, notes in a release that the effort aims to validate new methods to reduce background interference, thus allowing authorities to detect dangerous nuclear materials more precisely and reliably. The project team plans to develop an upgrade for the existing globally deployed base of radiation portal monitors.
The company says that the innovative method being developed and tested could be incorporated into radiation portal monitors, in the process significantly improving their performance.
Preliminary work by Arktis Radiation Detectors Ltd indicates that this method could serve better to detect shielded nuclear materials. The project team will complete work and provide test results by the end of the year.
The FLASH Portal Project is supported in part by the U.S. Government’s Technical Support Working Group (TSWG). Arktis notes that it won the 2011 Global Security Challenge, sponsored by TSWG.
The collaborating parties are Arktis Radiation Detectors Ltd. in Switzerland, the U.K. Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC
