Portable E-beam Pumped UV/X-ray Bio-decontamination System

Biological warfare agents pose a grave threat to the United States, as events of the last few years have shown. The malicious delivery of Bacillus anthracis spores to government and private-sector buildings through the U.S. mail system in 2001, was a prime example. The U.S. Armed Forces currently rely on three outdated biodecontamination solutions, which have been used over the last 40 years: super tropical bleach , high test hypochlorite, and a nonaqueous formulation referred to as decontamination solution number 2. Astralux, Inc. is developing a technology for Bio-Decontamination via electron-beam driven UV/X-ray irradiation, the BDUVX, that does not destroy assets, like the above. The combination of a high-intensity 250-280 nm ultraviolet emitter and an X-ray radiation source within a single package will offer a clean, non-toxic, and non-corrosive alternative for the surface and subsurface multi-BW agent decontamination of buildings and equipment. The BDUVX system is a mobile, self-contained unit, which will be simple and safe to operate. Electron-beam pumping provides the method to drive both types of emission in a single compact device. In Phase I we demonstrated the feasibility of the BDUVX system, by measuring electron-beam-driven co-generation of UV and X-ray radiation from a single chip.