One of the big fears of the national security establishment in the U.S. is the threat of the detonation of a nuclear device in a U.S. city by a terrorist group. Radioactive materials are tightly controlled in the U.S. by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If terrorists are unable to obtain nuclear materials within the U.S., then they might attempt to smuggle them into the U.S. in a cargo container.
       Port security in the U.S. has struggled for years to increase the inspection of cargo containers entering the U.S. at points of entry. Currently, the U.S. authorities use computers to review the manifests of cargo containers bound for the U.S. Any cargo containers that arouse suspicion are x-rayed and tested for neutron emissions before being allowed to enter the U.S.
      A team of chemists and physicists from Washington University in St. Louis is working on a better computer chip that will help improve radiation detection in cargo shipments entering the U.S. They are working with Texas A&M University as part of a five year ten million dollar grant for research in low-energy nuclear science. The money is being provided by the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration’s (DOE/NNSA) Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training and University-based Research.
       Robert J. Charity and Lee G. Sobotka at Washington University are working on a new approach for neutron detection that includes the design and construction of a new type of computer chip. George Engel, a professor at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, is helping with the design of the chip.
       Sobotka said, “The problem with existing neutron detectors is that they are too big to get fine position information. They needed to be big to get the required detection efficiency. The solution is to have many — tens of thousands — of small detectors. This had not been contemplated before as it requires a signal processing stream for each of the small detectors.”
        Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are the basis of data processing in computers, cell phones and other electronic devices. These sophisticated chips are designed and fabricated for the very specific efficient processing needed by a particular device for a particular application. The design and fabrication are complex and scientists don’t usually use ASICs for prototypes of devices.
        Two ASIC chips designed by the researchers will be used in combination with a particular organic crystal in their neutron detector. They will then carry out high-resolution experiments with neutron sources that cannot be accomplished with current technology.
       In addition to improving the detection of neutrons during the inspection of cargo, the new device containing the new chips and organic crystal will also advance our understanding of atomic nuclei. The new device will allow the researchers to improve the current model of the distribution of neutrons in the nuclei of heavy metals such as uranium and plutonium.
       Any improvement in neutron detection that can be successfully scaled to industrial production and economic price points will be a boon to insuring national security and prevent the smuggling of radioactive materials.

Ambient office  = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

       A Radioactive Dispersal Device (RDD) is consists of a conventional explosive that is surrounded by a shell of radioactive material. If such a device is detonated in a dense urban area, the explosion itself will have little effect but the radioactive materials will be dispersed over a wide area and threaten the health of millions of people. It is highly likely that the city would have to be abandoned at great cost in both money and human suffering. This type of bomb is also referred to as a “dirty” bomb.
       Whenever a moderate quantity of radioactive materials from any source vanishes, there is great concern that it may have been stolen by or may be sold to terrorists for the purpose of making a dirty bomb for a terrorist attack. Even if the material was lost or stolen by people who do not know what they have, it could still pose a danger because if the shielding container is broken or deliberately opened, it could threaten the health of people in vicinity.
      There are many possible sources for radioactive materials. Radioactive materials are widely used in research, medicine and industry. Oil and gas companies often use isotopes such as iridium-192 in their exploration and exploitation of reserves of oil and natural gas that they are fracking or intend to frack. The isotope is injected into the well and then detectors are used to find out how the fracking of the Earth is proceeding.
       Malaysia is a monarchy in Southeast Asia. There are thirteen states and three federal territories separated into roughly equal parts by the South China Sea. Malaysia has a population of about thirty million people. They have major reserves of oil and gas which are used for energy production. Exploration and fracking are carried out at a number of locations. Iridium-192 is sometimes used for this purpose.
       Nuclear materials in Malaysia are regulated by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board which is currently searching for a device that contains Iridium-192. The device belongs to a company that provides tests, calibrations and inspections to oil and gas companies, power plants and companies in other industries. The device weighs about fifty pounds and is worth around eighteen thousand U.S. dollars. Ir-192 has a half-life of seventy-three days.
       Two employees of the company loaded the device into a pickup truck to take to a job site. When they returned from the job site after completing their work, they found that the device was missing from the bed of the truck. They claimed that they have not stopped anywhere on the way back. The tailgate was down when they got back, and the device may have fallen out of the truck. The employees immediately retraced their steps but found nothing. A search by authorities also yielded no results.
       The authorities do not know whether this is an accident or a theft. As mentioned above, there is a danger that the contents of the device could be used to make a dirty bomb. Iridium-192 is a very popular isotope for thieves interested in making a dirty bomb.
       There have been terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists since 2000 in Malaysia. In 2015, Malaysia arrested terrorists affiliated with ISIS. Terrorists from the Middle East have tried to buy radioactive isotopes to make a dirty bomb before. If the Ir-192 was stolen and finds its way to terrorists, there could be dirty bomb attack in Malaysia.
 

Ambient office  = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 70 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

       Beta batteries (also known as betavoltaic cells) use energy from a radioactive source that emits electrons (also known as beta particles). The radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium is often used as the beta source. Most nuclear power sources use radioactivity to generate heat which is then used to generate electricity. This can be either thermoelectric which utilizes a thermocouple to generate electricity from a temperature differential or thermoionic in which heat induces a flow of charge carriers from a surface. Beta batteries do not use heat to generate electricity. Instead, when electrons from radioactive decay move through a semiconductor material, they leave  ionizations trail which produces electron-hole pairs which produce usable energy.
        The first beta batteries were created over sixty years ago. Because early semiconductor materials were not very efficient for use in beta batteries, high energy, expensive and dangerous radioactive isotopes were used which limited their commercial potential. During the 1970s, some cardiac pace makers employed promethium in a beta battery called the Betacel which was the first commercial beta battery. These batteries were later replaced by cheaper lithium batteries. Eventually better semiconductors were developed and relatively low energy, cheap and safer tritium came into use for beta batteries.
       Beta radiation can be easily blocked by a few millimeters of shielding. This means that a properly constructed beta battery will not emit dangerous radiation. Beta cells depend on radioactive materials which produce less and less energy as they age. This means that a beta battery has to be designed to produce a minimum of useful power over its lifespan as power generation falls.
        The main use for beta batteries is in remote locations and long-term use. They are popular power sources for space probes that cannot be serviced and usually need to have a more than a decade of reliable power. Recently it has been proposed that beta batteries could be used to trickle-charge conventional batteries in consumer devices such as cell phones and laptop computers.
       In 2016, it was proposed that carbon-14 be extracted from nuclear waste and encapsulated in diamond for use in a beta battery. In 2018, a Russian team created a design for a beta battery that would utilize nickel-64 enclosed between ten micro layers of diamond. The prototype has a a power output of about one microwatt with a power density of ten microwatts per cubit centimeter. The half life of the nickel-63 is about a hundred years.
        A team of Russian researchers from the National University of Science and Technology, the Institute of Microelectronics Technology and High Purity Materials of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center have announced a breakthrough in anticipating the properties of different designs for beta batteries.
        Up until now, the development of beta batteries has had to proceeded by trial and error. The Russian researchers have developed a computer program that can optimized the structure and behavior of proposed beta batteries. This will make it much simpler and cheaper to improve the design of new beta batteries

Ambient office  = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 104 nanosieverts per hour