Open AccessAMS / NRCan joint survey report, aerial campaign, Nevada National Security Site, January 20-24, 2014
Author(s) -
Piotr Wasiolek,
Jez Stampahar,
Rusty Malchow,
Tom Stampahar,
Mike Lukens,
H. Seywerd,
L.E. Sinclair,
R Fortin,
B J A Harvey
Publication year - 2015
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.4095/296590
Subject(s) - joint (building) , aerial survey , radiological weapon , homeland security , geography , environmental science , cartography , engineering , archaeology , civil engineering , medicine , terrorism , radiology
In January 2014 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Aerial Measuring System (AMS) and the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Nuclear Emergency Response project conducted a series of joint surveys at a number oflocations in Nevada including the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The goal of this project was to compare the responses of the two agencies' aerial radiation detection systems and data analysis techniques. This test included varied radioactive surface contamination levels and isotopiccomposition experienced at the NNSS and the differing data processing techniques utilized by the respective teams. Because both teams used the commercial aerial radiation detection systems from Radiation Solutions, Inc., the main focus of the campaign was to investigate the data acquisitiontechniques, data analysis, and ground-truth verification. The NRCan system consisted of four 4" x 4" x 16" NaI(Tl) scintillator crystals of which two were externally mounted in a modified commercial cargo basket certified for the Eurocopter AS350; the NNSA AMS system consisted of twelve 2" x 4" x16" NaI(Tl) crystals in externally mounted dedicated pods. For NRCan, the joint survey provided an opportunity to characterize their system's response to extended sources of various fission products at the NNSS. Since both systems play an important role in their respective countries' national framework of radiological emergency response and are subject tomultiple mutual cooperation agreements, it was important for each country to obtain more thorough knowledge of how they would employ these important assets and define the roles that they would each play in an actual response.