Device speeds up cleaning of n-contaminated sites
By IANSSunday, January 2, 2011
WASHINGTON - Researchers have built a device that will help speed up cleaning of radioactive contaminated sites.
“This system will be able to provide accurate results in 15 minutes that previously might have taken half a day,” said David Hamby, professor of health physics at the Oregon State University.
“That saves steps, time and money,” he added.
A patent has been granted on this new type of radiation spectrometer, according to an Oregon statement.
The market for these instruments may ultimately be global, and thousands of them could be built, researchers say.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on cleanup of some major sites contaminated by radioactivity, primarily from the historic production of nuclear weapons during and after World War II.
“Unlike other detectors, this spectrometer is more efficient, and able to measure and quantify both gamma and beta radiation at the same time,” Hamby said.
“Before this, two different types of detectors and other chemical tests were needed in a time-consuming process.”
The spectrometer, developed over 10 years by Hamby and Abi Farsoni, assistant professor at the Oregon College of Engineering, can quickly tell the type and amount of radioactive material present in soil samples.
