RE: New Detector

[Dimiter Popoff <tgi@cit.bg>]

The real question - which was already implied in at least one posting - is

"what is the daily consumption of liquid He?" . I'd prefer it expressed

in liters/day, but will manage the conversion, if necessary :-).



 Also, I would be curious about the resolution - say, in keV FWHM @ 1332.5 keV

and @ 122 keV. If too small to talk 1332.5 keV, 661.6 keV would be interesting, too.





Dimiter



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Dimiter Popoff

Transgalactic Instruments

http://transgalactic.freeyellow.com











-----Original Message-----

From: Elaine Marshall [mailto:emarshall@fnal.gov]

Sent: Friday, April 18, 2003 12:07 PM

To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: New Detector







Found the following article in today's news.







Weapons Lab Rolls Out New Radiation Detectors



L I V E R M O R E, Calif., April 18  A cell phone that will be able

to tell the difference between a "dirty bomb" and someone who's

undergone radiation treatment is among the next generation of

anti-terrorism tools being worked on by national weapons lab scientists.





The device, known as RadNet, is designed to make calls, surf the Web,

act as a Personal Digital Assistant, pinpoint locations with Global

Positioning System technology and sniff out nuclear materials with a

cutting-edge sensor. It is one of several national security projects

under development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.



"It almost sounds like science fiction, but it's here today," said Simon

Labov, director of the new Radiation Detection Center at Lawrence

Livermore, which celebrated its formal opening Thursday with a display

of the RadNet and other devices.



U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who was at the lab for the opening

and for a daylong conference of emergency response officials, called the

projects "the kind of work and the kind of science that is fundamental

to our being able to protect the American people from weapons of mass

destruction."



Lab officials showed off their work with theatrical flair, whipping away

white cloths from some prototypes.



"This is called UltraSpec," Labov said as he displayed the Ultra-High

Resolution Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometers. "No other instrument

like it in the world."



The Ultra-Spec uses extremely low temperatures  within one degree of

absolute zero, or -459 degrees Fahrenheit  to measure gamma rays from

nuclear materials that might be present in terrorist bombs and weapons.

It works by recording, very precisely, the rise in temperature when a

single gamma ray hits the detector's superconducting material, which is

usually tin.



"At these low temperatures we get incredible sensitivity," Labov said.



Much of the technology on display Thursday uses gamma ray detection

because gamma rays travel farther than other substances emitted by

nuclear material and are easier to spot and identify, Labov said.

Nuclear material also emits neutrons, which is part of some of the

detection technology.



RadNet grabbed a lot of the attention Thursday with its small size

in the range of a cellular phone circa 1995  and big agenda.



Scientists hope to have prototypes ready for testing within a few months

and could have the devices ready for action in about two years.



 The Associated Press



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+ Elaine T. Marshall

+ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

+ Facilities Engineering Services Section

+ Administration/Safety

+ Voice: (630 840-8756/Fax: (630) 840-4980

+ E-Mail: HYPERLINK "mailto:EMarshall@fnal.gov"EMarshall@fnal.gov

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++





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