Named 1st lab to test commercial radiation detectors in DHS plan
RICHLAND, Wash. - Emergency responders put their lives on the line every day to protect and serve. When they respond to a potential terrorist event, they need to know that the tools they purchased to detect radiation will work -- and will work well.
Pacific Northwest Countrywide Lab researchers test performance of commercially accessible radiation detectors with equipment such as this pressure chamber.
(Original high-resolution image.)
Scientists at the D.O.E.'s Pacific Northwest Countrywide Lab will now help ensure those tools work properly. The Department of Homeland Security has accepted PNNL to test and evaluate commercially accessible radiation detectors through its new GRaDER plan - Graduated Radiation and Nuclear Detector Evaluation and Reporting.
PNNL is the 1st U.S. Lab to be accepted to play this role.
"We'll be the 1st line of defense, if you will, for emergency responders," said Michelle Johnson, plan manager for PNNL's Ionizing Radiation Lab. "It really comes down to emergency responders having the best tools available. We'll be objective technical experts. It means a lot to me to know that we'll be helping protect them so they can stay focused on protecting us."
In a previously funded DHS program, companies submitted detectors to PNNL for testing. Not one met all of the performance requirements.
Anyone who wants to buy radiation detectors using DHS grant money will use test results from the GRaDER plan to choose systems that satisfy performance requirements. And companies selling these systems to grant recipients must have them evaluated to get the equipment on GRaDER's list of evaluated equipment. Users may include emergency responders, law enforcement and other DHS plan offices.
PNNL has tremendous expertise in radiological and nuclear science and years experience testing these systems.
The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office created the new program. It based the requirements on those already set by the American Countrywide Requirements Institute and Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. It also incorporated Requirements currently being developed by DHS.
Through GRaDER, NVLAP-accredited labs or DNDO-accepted labs that are already participating in the NVLAP accreditation process test radiation detection products from various vendors or manufacturers. NVLAP stands for Countrywide Voluntary Lab Accreditation Program. PNNL applied to the Countrywide Voluntary Lab Accreditation plan for accreditation as a radiation detection instrument testing laboratory. PNNL is already accredited by NVLAP as an ionizing radiation calibration laboratory.
Johnson will present on PNNL's role in GRaDER at the midyear meeting of the Health Physics Society on Feb. two in San Antonio, Tex.
PNNL conducted in excess of $122 million in homeland security research in fiscal year 2008. The Laboratory's homeland security team focuses on developing tools and systems to help emergency responders respond more rapidly and effectively to events of mass effect. PNNL also manages the Northwest Regional Technology Center for Homeland Security. The center facilitates the deployment of technologies to emergency responders by working with users and federal, state and local stakeholders.
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Pacific Northwest Countrywide Lab is a D.O.E. Office of Science Countrywide Lab where interdisciplinary teams advance science and technology and deliver solutions to America's most intractable problems in energy, Countrywide security and the environment. PNNL employs 4,200 staff, has a $850 million yearly budget, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965.
