144
13 Developing a Radiological and Nuclear Interdiction Network
display—at which all survey information is consolidated and monitored by a single
person knowledgeable enough to make sense of the information.
For decades, surveying large areas—especially in urban environments—was difficult, time-consuming, and interpretation of the results might require still more time.
Most readings were taken by individuals looking at their instruments and recording
them on survey maps or in a table; this hand-recorded information would be brought
to a central location and assembled into a map. Even information recorded electronically was not consolidated until all of the individual electronic records could be
brought together and plotted.
In recent decades, and especially in the second decade of this century, this began
to change. The advent of ubiquitous GPS, “smart” phones and tablet computers,
wireless communication, and ever-more sophisticated software has made it possible
to collect data from a large number of different types of instruments, consolidate it
at a single location, and to display the entire data set to anyone who can log into that
central location. Not only that, but instruments that were until recently the province
of highly trained specialists (e.g. gamma spectroscopy) are now designed to be used
by non-specialists with little training and to give the ability to forward problematic
information to specialists who might be working hundreds or thousands of kilometers
away.
Further, some software systems (e.g. RadResponder, maintained by the American Federal Emergency Management Agency) will accept information from a wide
variety of instruments and will display it to anybody with permission to view a
particular data set. Thus, data collected near Times Square by a New York City
Health Department scientist can be viewed by a Chief with the New York City Police
Department at the NYPD Emergency Operations Center at One Police Plaza in lower
Manhattan, by the Fire Department’s on-scene Health and Safety Officer, and by
Federal officials in Washington DC who are readying their personnel and equipment
to send to New York to assist with response efforts. This ability to collect, analyze,
and disseminate information on a nearly real-time basis is likely to increase with
time and will enhance the ability to monitor, coordinate, and respond to radiological
alerts, incidents, and emergencies as they arise.
While everybody involved in interdiction is looking for illicit radioactive materials
intended for malicious use, it is important to remember that interdiction operations
have consistently resulted in a number of “innocent” alarms from:
• Nuclear medicine patients
• Buildings and other structures with granite facades
• False alarms from momentary fluctuations in natural background radiation
• Medical facilities and/or radiopharmaceutical delivery vehicles
• Areas fertilized with high-potassium or super-phosphate fertilizers.
13 Developing a Radiological and Nuclear Interdiction Network
display—at which all survey information is consolidated and monitored by a single
person knowledgeable enough to make sense of the information.
For decades, surveying large areas—especially in urban environments—was difficult, time-consuming, and interpretation of the results might require still more time.
Most readings were taken by individuals looking at their instruments and recording
them on survey maps or in a table; this hand-recorded information would be brought
to a central location and assembled into a map. Even information recorded electronically was not consolidated until all of the individual electronic records could be
brought together and plotted.
In recent decades, and especially in the second decade of this century, this began
to change. The advent of ubiquitous GPS, “smart” phones and tablet computers,
wireless communication, and ever-more sophisticated software has made it possible
to collect data from a large number of different types of instruments, consolidate it
at a single location, and to display the entire data set to anyone who can log into that
central location. Not only that, but instruments that were until recently the province
of highly trained specialists (e.g. gamma spectroscopy) are now designed to be used
by non-specialists with little training and to give the ability to forward problematic
information to specialists who might be working hundreds or thousands of kilometers
away.
Further, some software systems (e.g. RadResponder, maintained by the American Federal Emergency Management Agency) will accept information from a wide
variety of instruments and will display it to anybody with permission to view a
particular data set. Thus, data collected near Times Square by a New York City
Health Department scientist can be viewed by a Chief with the New York City Police
Department at the NYPD Emergency Operations Center at One Police Plaza in lower
Manhattan, by the Fire Department’s on-scene Health and Safety Officer, and by
Federal officials in Washington DC who are readying their personnel and equipment
to send to New York to assist with response efforts. This ability to collect, analyze,
and disseminate information on a nearly real-time basis is likely to increase with
time and will enhance the ability to monitor, coordinate, and respond to radiological
alerts, incidents, and emergencies as they arise.
While everybody involved in interdiction is looking for illicit radioactive materials
intended for malicious use, it is important to remember that interdiction operations
have consistently resulted in a number of “innocent” alarms from:
• Nuclear medicine patients
• Buildings and other structures with granite facades
• False alarms from momentary fluctuations in natural background radiation
• Medical facilities and/or radiopharmaceutical delivery vehicles
• Areas fertilized with high-potassium or super-phosphate fertilizers.