Illicit Trafficking Radiation Assessment Program (ITRAP+10) Test campaign summary report

The Illicit Trafficking Radiation Assessment Program (ITRAP+10) is a program initiated by the European Union and the United States to evaluate the performance of available commercial radiation detection equipment against consensus standards. Through ITRAP+10, the international partners worked to ensure that testing standards are clearly defined, comprehensive and realistic in order to provide decision makers and private sector stakeholders with reliable detection system performance information as well as possible methods to enhance equipment performance. To ensure the review of commercial equipment would be relevant to the global commons, the European Commission Directorate General for Home Affairs (EC-HOME), the Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (US-DHS DNDO), the U.S. Department of Energy (US-DOE), and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed to collaborate on the conduct of the ITRAP+10 test campaign and share in the design of the tests, their execution, and the analysis of the data. This summary report aims at making the results of the ITRAP+10 test campaign available to the international community. It includes an overview of the ITRAP+10 test program, a summary of test results across the nine classes of instruments (tested by US-DHS DNDO and by EC-JRC) with scientific and technical data, and information about the manufacturers of the instruments tested. Moreover, it also takes into account the discussion of the standards used for testing and the feedback provided to the standards community to help with the standards' revisions.JRC.A.7-Euratom Coordinatio

Radionuclide calibrator responses for 224Ra in solution and adsorbed on calcium carbonate microparticles

A suspension of 224Ra adsorbed onto CaCO3 microparticles shows promise for α-therapy of intracavitary micro-metastatic diseases. To facilitate accurate activity administrations, geometry-specific calibration factors for commercially available reentrant ionization chambers (ICs) have been developed for 224RaCl2 solutions and 224Ra adsorbed onto CaCO3 microparticles in suspension in ampoules, vials, and syringes. Ampoules and vials give IC responses consistent with each other to <1%. Microparticles attenuation leads to a ≈1% to ≈2.5% reduction in response in the geometries studied

National Reachback Systems for Nuclear Security: State-of-play report: ERNCIP Thematic Group Radiological and Nuclear Threats to Critical Infrastructure: Deliverable of task 3.1b

Operational systems for nuclear security in Finland, France, Denmark, UK, US and Canada were reviewed. The Finnish case is a holistic approach to Nuclear Security Detection Architecture, as defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency; reachback is only one component of the system, albeit an important crosscutting element of the detection architecture. The French and US studies concentrate on the reachback itself. The Danish nuclear security system is information-driven, relying on the cooperation of the competent authorities. The British and Canadian analyses describe nuclear security planning and operations in a Major Public Event (MPE), Olympics, where cooperation between the frontline officers and the reachback centre plays a key role to reduce radiological and nuclear risks. For the implementation of an efficient reachback system there is a strong need for standardizing the data acquisition, storing, and the final distribution of the analysis results. Major nuclear powers take this activity very seriously and they have 24/7 all year national service for information processing. The case studies of Finland and France show that efficient European reachback is manageable and technically possible on a country-wide basis. The case study on Denmark reveals that countries with limited reachback resources need an adequate and standardized technical information sharing mechanism to aid their national analysis services in a precise and timely manner.JRC.G.5-Security technology assessmen

A High Speed Quantum Communication Testbed

We describe the status of the NIST Quantum Communication Testbed (QCT) facility. QCT is a facility for exploring quantum communication in an environment similar to that projected for early commercial implementations: quantum cryptographic key exchange on a gigabit/second free-space optical (FSO) channel. Its purpose is to provide an open platform for testing and validating performance in the application, network, and physical layers of quantum communications systems. The channel uses modified commercial FSO equipment to link two buildings on the Gaithersburg, MD campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), separated by approximately 600 meters. At the time of writing, QCT is under construction; it will eventually be made available to the research community as a user facility. This paper presents the basic design considerations underlying QCT, and reports the status of the project