Nuclear, new systems of border control

Nuclear, new systems of border control

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, in the last ten years (1993-2013) there have been all over the world about 2,500 cases of illicit trafficking of radioactive and nuclear material. Sixteen of these cases have concerned materials such as enriched uranium or plutonium that could be used for the preparation of a nuclear device. Furthermore the IAEA report some cases in which they were interested radioactive materials that may be used to achieve what is commonly called "dirty bomb", ie devices that serve to disperse by means of a conventional explosion, radioactive material in a wide area causing the contamination . The IAEA indicates that these materials represent a continuous threat to the security of the international community. In the U.S. since 2007 are inspected, looking for radioactive and nuclear materials all 400 daily flights that arrive at airports from foreign countries. The U.S. policy is to extend the search for these materials to 100% of all traffic entering the country by land and by sea.
Even in Europe, the ports with the highest freight traffic are gearing up to check all containers handled. The contrast of the smuggling of radioactive and nuclear material not only requires huge investments to equip all of instrumentation appropriate entry points in a given territory but also the development of new technologies to be able to detect even small amounts of nuclear material that could be properly shielded or masked in different ways.
January 1, 2012 started the research program MODES_SNM (Mobile Detection System for Special Nuclear Material) funded by the European Community under the ban Security 2011. This program, coordinated by the University of Padua, is now in the crucial phase of the "demonstration "that is, the test in real conditions of use which will be completed in late June.
MODES_SNM has designed and built a complete prototype of a mobile system and operational detection of radioactive materials using neutron and gamma-ray detectors based on a new technology (noble gases at high pressure) proposed a commercial scale by a Swiss company (the ARKTIS) on the basis of experience gained in the field of fundamental physics programs based at CERN. Points are particularly innovative in the prototype, as well as the development of the detectors, a modern, fast electronics for signal processing developed by CAEN, a leading manufacturer of advanced electronic and computer system for the complete management of the prototype and the 'automatic analysis information that allows the 'use of the system by a user "non-expert". The computer system has been developed by a group of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Padua.
Participating in the program MODES_SNM also the 'University of Insubria, l' University of Liverpool (UK), ETH Zurich (Switzerland), the 'Institute of Nuclear Research, Warsaw (Poland) and the Irish Customs.
In the first week of April, external users interested in running the final tests (Irish and Dutch Customs, Home Office UK) participated in a training course in Padua.
In the second week of April, the system was tested at the laboratory of the Research Center Pearl City, Ispra (Varese), the European Community where there are samples of nuclear material and was then handed over to the Dutch Customs who have used it for about ten days in the port of Rotterdam, comparing it with existing systems for the detection of radioactive material.
In the month of May were completed two further periods of trial in a British airport and the Port of Dublin and finally the beginning of June there is a test in Switzerland. The results of the field test were generally positive so as to invite the study of a possible commercial development of the prototype.
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