Situational Awareness Monitor for Nuclear Events

72275S03-I With the ever-present threat of terrorist attacks on American soil, it is increasingly important to monitor pre-nuclear-event warning signs and provide post-nuclear-event assessment for use in consequence management and emergency response. In particular, major urban centers are potential targets of nuclear attacks, ¿dirty bomb¿ attacks, and chemical/biological agent attacks. This project will develop, demonstrate, and make commercially available a cost-effective, easy-to-use Situational Awareness Monitoring System (SAMS). The SAMS will be comprised of a series of individually configurable Micro-environmental Sensor Pods (MSP), which are permanently deployed prior to events to establish baseline conditions and to monitor for pre-event warning signs. In addition, the system will include MSPs that can be quickly deployed after an event to augment the network with additional information necessary for emergency response and clean-up teams. The redundant communications option insures that data will flow even when the existing communication infrastructure is disabled due to the event. Phase I will adapt an existing MSP platform to incorporate appropriate radiation sensors for use in a SAMS network. Also, a deployment methodology will be developed in order to maximize the value of collected data for predicting the spread of contaminant plumes. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by awardee: The product should have application to the Department of Defense for use during military actions, for monitoring treaty compliance, and for protecting military installations on foreign and domestic soil. Non-military applications include atmospheric monitoring/modeling for agricultural applications, meteorological measurements, field measurements of gas constituents from point sources, emergency response for hazardous substances release, atmospheric chemistry research, severe storm warning systems, and forest fire fighting.