A Case Study on a Successful Collaborative Project to Increase Security for a Device Containing Radiological Material

Radioisotopes such as Cs-137 and Co-60 are utilized in various medical, industrial, and research applications. This radiological material can be a theft or sabotage target which necessitates a certain level of security to adequately protect it. The presented work will showcase a very successful collaborative project between Sandia National Laboratories (United States) and Elekta Instrument AB (Sweden) to develop low-cost delay and detection security enhancements incorporated into Elekta's stereotactic radiosurgery system, the Leksell Gamma Knife, to help mitigate the risk of source theft or sabotage. This work was conducted with funding from the United States National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Radiological Security and will show the value of collaboration between a U.S. national laboratory with decades of security expertise and a private manufacturer. Sandia will discuss the engineering process needed to design such robust security enhancements and Elekta will share their experience and lessons learned in the hope that states, operators, and other manufacturers consider similar approach to addressing radiological threat. (author)