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Improved Assessment of Initial Alarms from Radiation Detection Instruments
Closed for proposals
Project Type
Project Code
J02005CRP
2091Approved Date
Status
Start Date
Expected End Date
Completed Date
19 November 2020Participating Countries
Description
With literally millions of vehicles and people crossing borders everyday, the use of Radiation Portal Monitors (RPMs) has become a critical tool for detecting the unauthorized transboundary movement of nuclear and other radioactive materials. The proper assessment of radiation alarms from the RPMs is an essential part of the effort to combat the global problems associated with these unauthorized movements. Coordinated research and development is needed, and will be conducted in this CRP, to provide peer reviewed and validated methodologies and guidelines for assessing radiation alarms and providing confidence that nuclear and other radioactive material out of regulatory control is detected and credible response actions initiated. The CRP scope includes the establishment of a database of materials that cause radiation alarms and the development of a software tool that provides analysis of alarms to improve the decision process for determining whether an alarm is innocent or suspicious, i.e., may contain nuclear or other radioactive materials out of regulatory control.
Objectives
Develop technical documents and tools that can be used by FLOs and expert organizations to enhance member states’ ability to make high confidence assessments on whether or not nuclear and other radioactive material out of regulatory control is present when an initial alarm occurs.
Specific objectives
1. Obtain information on radiation alarms (from declared radioactive material shipments and all NORM and other shipments or occupancies of portal monitors) including the physical characteristic of the commodity, the conveyance with the commodity, and the radiation detector data for thatcommodity. This compilation will be used by the software tool developed in (3).2. Form a baseline with recommendations on radiation counting times and instrument choice to draw better conclusions and support an assessment of the radiation alarm.3. Develop a software tool that should not require any technological or infrastructural changes on the existing radiation detection systems but simply act as an overlay that will support FLO assessments of radiation alarms.
Impact
The CRP was an excellent capacity building project and greatly enhanced the participants depth and breadth of knowledge and experience in the evaluation of RPM alarms and RPM operation. No single member state would have been be able to conduct the overall scope of research with the myriad commodities and equipment provided by the sum of contributor CRP Member States. Measurable impacts of the CRP can be demonstrated, for example, by the improvement in efficiency, effectiveness, and coordination in the Port of Colombo, Sri Lanka. In Port of Colombo, the CRP activities resulted in a 33% reduction in the time and effort to assess radiation alarms. This reduction in effort was equivalent to three man-years of labor each year just on the part of Customs officers that were re-assigned to other duties. Participation in the CRP also provided benefits, such as, developing a strong network with officials from other countries with similar interests to share research and best practices. The mobile application and its commodity catalogue and software tool support FLOs in their assessment of initial alarms and improves trainings. The Performing the research also strengthened cooperation between regulatory bodies, technical support organizations, Customs, and other related agencies. Contributing Member States provide the necessary peer review and methodology validation to ensure guidelines and tools for assessing radiation detection equipment alarms provide FLOs with the confidence that nuclear and other radioactive material out of regulatory control is detected and appropriate response actions initiated.
Relevance
The project is of great relevance and value to the Member States. There are hundreds of thousands of alarms per year on the more than 10,000 radiation portal monitors installed around the world. With over 99% of the alarms caused by naturally occurring radioactive materials, front line officers and supporting agencies/experts need a tool to more effectively and efficiently evaluate alarms to focus limited resources on suspicious ones. The CRP investigated solutions to the alarm assessment problem and has produced great results - results that led to the development of tools used by the Member States because they were part of the development of the solution. TRACE has been downloaded and installed more than 13,000 times by users from 158 countries. The TRACE App is also available in all official IAEA languages as well as Georgian, Korean, and Turkish. Many countries and international organizations such as the WCO have incorporated TRACE into their standard operating procedures for alarm response and front line officer training. As the tool continues to be maintained and improved, the expected use of TRACE and other CRP outputs will grow and have even greater relevance to enhanceMember State nuclear security efforts.