The threat of dirty bombs or radiological dispersal devices (RDDs) is real, and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Radiological Security has spent over a decade understanding the threat and working to protect vulnerable high‐activity radiological material across the globe that is used in everyday medical, research, and industrial applications. Radioactive sources are used in radiography as a form of non-destructive testing to inspect welds or metal integrity and in the oil and gas industry to characterize exploration and production wells, providing critical data to exploit geological formations in pursuit of oil caches. These mobile radioactive sources are of sufficient curie quantities to be considered desirable sources for terrorist organizations. A defense in‐depth approach—focused on layered security by starting at the target—has been used to enhance the protection of fixed radiological devices; however, the ability to enhance the security of mobile radiological devices commonly used in the industrial radiography and well logging industries with standard physical security components has proven to be challenging. Over the last six years Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been leading an effort for the Office of Radiological Security (ORS) to work with industry partners and mobile radiological device manufacturers to develop technology that can be implemented into the daily operations of these industries to provide an enhanced level of security. Successful hardware production and pilot deployments of the Mobile Source Transit Security (MSTS) systems for industrial radiography and well logging industries at partner sites has resulted in licensing of these technologies to commercial enterprises. Technology transfer efforts have ensued to support transitioning the solutions for commercial availability in both industrial radiography and well logging industries. These commercial systems will expand the availability of the technology solutions, improving situational awareness of radioactive sources as they move from home base of operations to the jobsite and back. Information provided by the two systems will enhance efforts of first responders to track down lost or stolen radioactive sources.
Year
2020
Abstract