Lightweight Radiation Shielding for Transportable Rigid Wall Shelters

The US Army Deployable Medical System (DEPMEDS) facility is a part of the US Army Combat Support Hospital (CSH), which consists of various shelters providing critical surgical and intensive care services to the injured soldiers in the combat field. The DEPMEDS employs Army Standard Family (ASF) Expandable ISO Shelters to house their CT scanner equipment. The walls of these shelters do not provide any radiation shielding capability. The unshielded, scattered radiation from the CT scanners pose safety hazard to the people that may be present in the vicinity outside the shelter. The lack of radiation shielding requires the CT scanner shelter to be located some distance away from the main CSH shelters. Consequently, the patient has to be transported back and forth between the CSH and the CT scanner shelter. This is particularly undesirable for the quality of care for the wounded soldiers. NexGen Composites, in collaboration with the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) has developed lightweight composite radiation shielding panels which can provide effective shielding against the secondary X-ray radiation that are generated during the operation of the CT scanners. In Phase I, NexGen has demonstrated the technical feasibility of using the composite panels for the ISO shelters.