ITRAP+10Illicit Trafficking Radiation Assessment

Program

Historical overview and achievements

EC JRCProject Leader: Said AbousahlTec. Manager: Montserrat Marin-Ferrer

DHS DNDOAD: Julian HillProject Manager: Luc Murphy

• ITRAP+10 was initiated by the European Commission with the JRC as the executing agency.

• Opportunity to collaborate and share resources and results.

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Mission: ITRAP+10 is designed to test commercially available radiation detection and identification products against applicable ANSI and IEC standards.

Mission: ITRAP+10 is designed to test commercially available radiation detection and identification products against applicable ANSI and IEC standards.

ITRAP+10: Objectives• Provide scientific and technical data on rad/nuc detection systems to

Policy Makers.• Provide access to best technology based on repeatable test process

and results from equipment testing• Promote harmonization of standards and guidelines (ANSI and IEC

and NNS1)• Improve exchange of information.• Provide manufacturer with feedback on how well their instruments

performs against standards. • Promote new research and development (R&D) efforts

Supplemental Benefits: • Accreditation of laboratories and certification of instruments in accredited

labs (EU)

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ITRAP+10: History

• August ‘09. AA with DG JLS (now HOME)• January ‘10. US-DHS/DNDO launches the parallel US program• 2010-2011. - preparatory phase

- development of testing procedures based on standards- calls for expression of interest- building ITRAP+10 experimental facilities

• 2011-2014. Testing & reporting of 9 families of instruments• December ‘13. Completion of tests and publication of the

JRC final report (EU)• Winter ‘15. Completion of joint JRC/DNDO report (‘gift to the

world’)

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Equipment Category IEC Standards

ANSI Standards JRC DNDO

Radiation Portal Monitors IEC 62244 ANSI N42.35 4 6

Spectrometric Radiation Portal Monitors

IEC 62484 ANSI N42.38 4 4

Personal Radiation Detectors IEC 62401 ANSI N42.32 5 (15)9 (27)

Spectrometric Personal Radiation Detectors

IEC 62618 (draft)

ANSI N42.48 4 (11)5 (15)

Radioisotope Identifiers IEC 62327 ANSI N42.34 7 (15)10 (27)

Gamma Search Detectors IEC 62533 ANSI N42.33 2 (6)2 (6)

Neutron Search Detectors IEC 62534 NA 2 (4) 2 (6)

Portable Radiation Scanners-Backpack Type

IEC 62694 ANSI N42.53 (draft)

3 (5) 5 (10)

Mobile Vehicular Detection Systems

NA ANSI N42.43 8 (ongoing in phase II) 4

TOTAL 86 39 (72) 47 (105)

ITRAP+10: Standards and Instruments

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ITRAP+10 Facilities: JRC

JRC Tests conducted in Ispra, Italy

ITRAP laboratory for static tests on handheld equipmentwith gamma and neutron irradiators

Accuracy test for the SPRDs

Angular response for the RIIDs

Response to moderated neutrons

for the NSDs

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ITRAP+10 Facilities: JRC

ITRAP laboratory for dynamic tests on portals

The new laboratory is characterized for its rail system of 35 m length over which the mobile platform circulates.

The mobile platform is remotely controlled with wireless technology and the speed (from 0.1m/s up to 3.0m/s), the number of cycles, and the vertical and horizontal position of the sources are parameters easily settable by the operator.

The mobile track has been developed to guaranty constant speed, reproducibility (5000 repetitions for the execution of the False Alarm Rate), versatility (the vertical position of the source is ranging from 30cm to 360cm, and different source holders are available).

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ITRAP+10 Facilities: DNDO/DOE

1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory: All Tests Mobile Systems, SRPMs, RPMs

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ITRAP+10 Facilities: DNDO/DOE

2. Pacific Northwest Laboratory•Cascade Tek•Northwest EMC

RIDS, SPRDs, GSDs, NSDs, Backpacks

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ITRAP+10 Facilities: DNDO/DOE

3. Savannah River National Laboratory •Global Testing Laboratory

PRDs

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ITRAP+10: Automated Data Collection

Data Collection System

Use of DCS (SCA) and CORE (PNNL)

Lots of pictures, spectra, and data in general have been collected during the extensive testing campaign.

Different databases have been created to accurately record any single piece of information that could help to analyse the results.

The Data Collection System developed by DNDO has been implemented in JRC Ispra to deal with the collection and management of the data within ITRAP+10.

Deliverables: JRC ITRAP+10 ReportsDeliverables: JRC ITRAP+10 ReportsAddressed to WHOM?/Family Tested

DG HOME(Comprehensive Reports)

EU Nuclear Laboratories(Test Method)

Manufacturers(Single blind vendor Report)

StandardsCommunity(Feedbacks after validation of the tests methods)

PRDs 1 1 5 1

SPRDs 1 1 4 1

GSDs 1 1 2 1

NSDs 1 1 2 1

RPMs 1 1 4 1

SRPMs 1 1 4 1

RIIDs 1 1 6 1

BackPacks 1 1 3 1

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DNDO ITRAP+10 Reports

Forty-seven Individualized vendor reports• Forty-seven Summary of the individualized vendor reports

Nine Category Reports

Joint Final Report

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Lesson Category 1: Test Setups

• Use of multiple types of gamma and neutron irradiators and theireffect on test repeatability across institutions: Different equipment, even when used to set up identical sources under identical geometry, may result in different fields and thus different instrument responses

• Ideal source activities and distances: Source activity will govern test geometry (instrument-to-source distance, for example) which may affect results

• Neutron measurements and the importance of reducing test setup moderation: Establishing a proper low-scatter environment

• Accurate response time data collection methods: Experimental technique may determine time-to-alarm results, tolerances should be specified

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Lesson Category 2: Language of the Standards

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Many of the lessons learned were related to language in the standards that lent itself to either misinterpretation or multiple interpretations that met the letter of the standard but were not mutually compatible •Meaning of “Background”: One Standard called for testing within a background dose rate range; this was interpreted as artificially elevating the natural background radiation using an added radiation source, such as naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM)•Repeatability requirements: Interpretation of independent trials and collection of statistically significant data•Instrument expected capability vs. actual capability: Standards language expected instruments to function in ways incompatible with capability, which made tests unexecutable

Lesson Category 3: Variations in Methodology

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• Variations were common for units of very similar types with similar operating environments and users-why?

• Requirements called out by the standards varied widely (in each row, identical

tests are indicated by a letter and highlighted with color)

Lesson Category 4: Source Definition and Field Setup

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• Standards that called for a particular ambient dose equivalent rate or exposure rate necessitated use of calibrated ambient dose equivalent rate meters or exposure meters, which at low radiation fields (less than 0.5 μSv/h or 50 μRv/h) often had large uncertainties associated with their measurements

• Incident fluence rate is reproducible and easier to setup• If ambient dose equivalent rate is required, a calculation would be

more reproducible• Special nuclear material should be specified in terms of emission rate

for a particular gamma energy, such as 186 keV for highly enriched uranium

Lesson Category 5: Neutron Testing• Setup can vary widely and still meet standard requirements

• Different exposure devices• Different surroundings

• Source specification varied• Source exposure methods not specified so each institution devised

their own (various popups, rails, etc.)• Some methods called for moderation, others did not• Some methods called for phantoms, others did not• Some neutron detectors are very small due to the small size of the

instrument, but the standards impose too rigorous a response requirement

• Valid comparisons of results across institutions are difficult due to neutron test uncertainty

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Lesson Category 6: Assumptions about Instrument Capability

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• Some of the test methods described in the standards could not beexecuted because of the construction of certain classes of instruments• Example: Battery testing often required measuring voltages where certain

conditions applied and applying those voltages with a direct current power supply, an impossible task for many devices due to the use of “smart”batteries and/or non-removable batteries

• A better way to measure performance over time is to record a log and/or video file of responses as the battery runs down

Lesson Category 7: Manufacturer-Provided Information

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• Manuals are often inadequate: Standards impose minimum requirements for information included in manuals, but structure could also be specified

• Information displayed to the operator (alarms, identifications) is not always saved to the instrument for later examination: Standards should require that what the user sees is also what is stored

• Consistency in alarm types for gamma versus neutron could be specified: Such as red for gamma and blue for neutron

Conclusions• Testing is important- it gives manufacturers impartial evidence of how their devices

perform.

• Testing to standards takes a long time, but is doable with the current standards-but improvements would simplify and expedite testing.

• Lessons learned from these tests can help in revision and development of standards to ensure consistency and reproducibility across testing facilities for different instrument types.

• Huge amount of data were collected and are difficult to retrieve.

None of the instruments tested under ITRAP+10 passed the complete set of tests!

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Follow-up Steps (phase II)What is required to go from ITRAP+10 to the Certification Process?

1. Adequate and validated standards.- ITRAP+10 has revised them and given feedbacks to the standards community.

2. The EU Accreditation body endorsing these harmonized standards.

3. Test methods univocally defined and scientifically based.- Developed under ITRAP+10.

4. EU Accredited laboratories with experience, knowledge and suitable facilities able to implement those test methods and to certify instruments. (Sharing experience during ITRAP+10)

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