Control of unauthorized transportation of nuclear and radioactive materials across state territories and borders: detection, response and decision support

A new solution to control the illicit transportation of nuclear and radioactive materials is proposed and described. This solution consists in the creation of a system of gamma and gamma-neutron radiation monitors and fundamentally new software/hardware package RAVEN (Radiation Alarm and Video Event Notification) which integrates different type monitors in a single network. The main purpose of this system is to analyze and store data coming from radiation monitors, to process these data and to help the user to interpret them. This ensures the user's correct response to all the alarms triggered by radiation monitors and indicating the presence of radioactive and/or nuclear materials in scanned objects. The developed system can integrate fixed radiation monitors that can be installed in different sites within not only one country but in different sites worldwide in a single network. The system can be adapted to the local conditions and allows the user: (i) To detect minimum quantities of special nuclear and radioactive materials (specified by the national and international requirements) by their gamma and/or neutron radiation; (ii) To acquire, store and analyze digital data and video images related to cargos with radioactive materials crossing a state border or an object limits; (iii) To make these data accessible to users at different levels ensuring effective operation of both central alarm stations (state, regional or agency center) and local alarm stations (border cross points or object limits). (author)