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Neue ZürcherZeitung
Saturday, 6 April 2013 · No 79
SWITZERLAND
19
A radiant invention
Swiss researchers hope detectors will create an international breakthrough on uranium and plutonium trafficking
Young physicists have developed
a new weapon in the fight against
the illicit trafficking of nuclear
material – a mobile detector. The
researchers and their Zurichbased company are currently
testing a prototype. Tests carried
out at an EU laboratory near
Varese have produced promising
results.
Andreas Schmid, Ispra
The reception building masks the
sprawling complex that lies behind.
Surrounded by fences and accessible
to visitors only after the most rigorous
security checks, this is the European
Commission’s
research
centre.
Situated on the edge of Ispra near
Varese, it employs over 2,800
scientists from a variety of nations.
The roads that wend their way through
the labyrinth of huts, laboratories and
concrete buildings are named after the
various EU Member States.
Although there is no Switzerland Street,
Zurich-based company Arktis Radiation
Detectors AG have visitors’ rights to the
campus. Four of the firm’s scientists are
testing their latest invention in the high
security wing. They have discovered a way
of detecting plutonium and uranium, even
when it is shielded. The plan is for these
detectors to be deployed at cargo ports and
airfields to check the contents of containers,
and they will even be able to detect
concealed radioactive materials that are
shielded by lead coatings.
Cat litter alert
The 9/11 terror attacks in the USA triggered
heightened international efforts to find
ways of pre-empting future threat scenarios,
including the illicit trafficking of plutonium
which could be used to make bombs. The
Swiss detector manufacturers have attracted
massive interest worldwide with their new
invention because, as Rico Chandra, CEO
of Arktis Radiation Detectors notes, current
detection methods are generally inadequate.
The current devices are constantly
causing false alarms because they are
unable to distinguish safe materials with
high radiation levels such as cat litter,
fertilizers or pan cleaners from hazardous
materials. The current systems also use the
expensive and rare noble gas helium-3. In
contrast, the Arktis prototype is based on a
totally different principle.
By bringing
the time factor into play, it directly proves
the existence of fast neutrons from nuclear
material, without the need for helium-3. "
“We can measure things that no-one else
can measure”, Chandra says proudly. The
slow neutrons that are much more prevalent
in the natural environment do not interfere
with the detector because it can differentiate
between sources of radiation and in this
way we can avoid false alarms.”
The theory all sounds very plausible, but
Chandra and his team are now testing it out in
an extensive series of trials. They have rented a
holiday apartment in Ispra for the two weeks of
testing. In the evenings they sit around talking
shop and sometimes cook a meal for the
laboratory staff who are helping them with their
experiments.
The concrete mushroom of a former
nuclear power station points the way to the
laboratory known as Perla, where
researchers are working on radioactive
material. The second major security check
of the day is carried out at the entrance and
the guards hand out dosimeters and white
aprons. A series of eerie corridors lead to
the room where the detectors are being
tested.
Every
movement
is
monitored by security guards –
the Arktis staff work under
c o n s t a n t s u r v e i l l a n c e . In the
laboratory, a British group is chatting –
they work for the authorities that have
teamed up with the Swiss firm. In their own
laboratories in Zurich, the Arktis radiation
detectors are only allowed to handle
harmless californium, an element that,
Radioactive particles are positioned so that the detectors’ performance can be tested under a range of conditions.
BILDER CHRISTOPH RUCKSTUHL / NZZ
Two Arktis scientists using a cylinder to shield the radioactive material.
The reactions of the detectors produce useful results in every test.
unlike plutonium, is unsuitable for
weapons manufacturing. At the PaulScherrer-Institut in Villigen – another site
used by the company for its experiments
– it is also not allowed to carry out the
full gamut of tests.
The detectors simply look like a couple
of lateral partitions. More impressive is
the tangle of cables and all the computers
that are attached to them. Chandra’s
colleagues David Murer and Leonard
Göltl place a minute particle in a
cylinder. It contains plutonium and,
despite being shielded, it should cause the
detector to react when it is between the
locks. Numbers and letters begin to dance
and flicker across the computer screens.
Everyone in the room watches intently as
a new container of test material is
prepared.
If the tests produce the hoped-for results,
the inventors will be able to tap a lucrative
global market. The company has already
been working with security agencies in the
USA for some time and is using lobbyists
to help move things forward.
It is also
working with the British authorities, as bids
will soon be in the pipeline for major future
contracts.
High-level discussions are
underway about whether the exits of the
Eurotunnel should in future feature
improved detector systems for checking
cargo.
Arktis Radiation Detectors was founded
Demand for devices that can detect
plutonium and uranium is strongly linked to
perceived threat levels, fear of attacks and
current events. Chandra confirms this,
saying: “When something happens, the
market reacts and demand for detectors
soars.” But he goes on to say that orders do
not always follow on the heels of
evaluations when the authorities find
themselves under pressure to cut costs.
This has increasingly been the case in the
wake of the financial crisis, but the
psychological aspect is still having an
impact. There are recurring fears that
terrorists could build nuclear weapons and
smuggle them into a country where they
want to stage an attack. Such fears mean
that the security agencies are increasingly
interested in companies that are involved in
detector technology.
But it is difficult to forecast how
business will develop because first of all the
company needs to win a major contract in
order to break into the market and attract
follow-up orders. This is why the firm’s
founder is reluctant to allow his figures to
be scrutinized too closely, but he does not
hide the fact that his company has high
hopes of winning major contracts in the
near future from Britain and the USA,
countries that are expected to invest billions
in such technology over the coming years.
in 2007 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich. The
new firm was set up by Giovanna Davatz
and Rico Chandra. These two physicists
developed a fascination for materials during
their studies and went on to work at both
ETH and Cern in Geneva, where their work
focused on the detection of neutron and
gamma radiation.
Chandra, 36, explains that a workshop in
the USA initially aroused his interest in
security technology, and he went on to
specialize in this field. These days, the
company is in particular need of
interdisciplinary expertise, and the two
founders have been joined by electronics
engineers, software specialists, physics
laboratory technicians, materials scientists
and business managers.
Moving away from fixed
installations
In the Perla laboratory, the Arktis
detectors are constantly being readjusted
and a range of tests carried out using
various shield materials around the
plutonium core. The devices that are
currently used at customs posts and cargo
ports are mainly huge, fixed installations.
But according to Chandra, the Arktis
detectors are fully mobile, giving the
system a practical as well as a technological
advantage
over
its
competitors.
In Switzerland, the company and its fifteen
staff are involved in research and
development and the production and sale of
detectors to foreign customers. But Chandra
says that in the medium-term they could
also be involved in some domestic projects
that are potentially on the horizon.
Amazement at the Swiss
The
laboratory
staff
who
are
monitoring the tests and helping with
the experiments are kept very busy by
Chandra and his team. This was
certainly the case during a series of
tests that were run last summer. The
remaining weeks of the year, when
teams from other countries tested their
devices in Perla, were a little more
relaxed, according to Paolo Peerani,
who works with the Swiss scientists in
the EU research centre. “They’re
young, full of energy and are always
coming up with new ideas.” He said he
found it amazing how they never
stopped working and sometimes he just
told them to “Take a vacation.”