Answer to Question #2538 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Q

We are a community-based health care institution in a metropolitan area in the nation's capital. With the advent of the "dirty bomb" scare weighing on minds of safety officers, I am interested in recommendations to acquire radiation detection devices and hand-held spectrometers covering a spectrum of 10-12 radionuclides that may be potentially present if a crude device were to go off. I understand inherent issues of training and educating personnel using such devices. It would be of great help if a supplier's or manufacturer's name and approximate cost for budgeting purpose is also included in your reply.

A

There are a large number of instruments that might meet your needs. They range in price from relatively inexpensive to very costly and their quality varies from pretty bad to quite good. Any prices we could mention here will likely become inaccurate quickly, so it's probably best to look at the manufacturer's Web site for the latest pricing information. Roughly speaking, you're looking at $500 - $1,000 for survey instruments (contamination or radiation surveys with no radionuclide information) and from $5,000 - $15,000 for multichannel analyzers that will help you to identify the specific radionuclides present.

For your purposes, it probably makes the most sense to go with hand-held field instruments. These have somewhat less resolution than laboratory instruments, but you really don't need the added resolution for most radionuclides likely to be involved in a radiological attack. In addition, the more precise instruments need liquid nitrogen and cost a lot more money. Companies that make and sell instruments include:

Dose rate and count rate instruments

• Ludlum Measurements, Inc.
• Eberline Services

Gamma spectroscopy (nuclide identification)

• Canberra-Harwell
• Princeton Gamma-Tech
• Exploranium Nuclear Systems Div.

Others are listed on the Health Physics Society Web site.
Good luck!

Andrew Karam, CHP, PhD