Novel Concepts for Handheld Radioisotope Identifiers

Proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons is a serious threat in the world today. Prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons has reached a state of heightened urgency in recent years. Handheld radioisotope identifiers incorporating gamma-ray spectrometers are an important tool in checking the proliferation of the nuclear weapons. The performance of the current radioisotope identifiers is limited by the characteristics of gamma-ray detectors available at present. The goal of the proposed project is to investigate new scintillation materials in combination with advanced silicon based photodetectors to build next generation handheld radioisotope identifiers with significantly superior performance as well as increased flexibility compared to the existing versions. The Phase I project will be aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of producing scintillator