Alpha environments are always particular. Anyone that worked in this type of environment will know that safety and material control are paramount here. Localising and identifying the special fissile material can be tricky, especially when in constrained nuclear environments.

For instance, when tidying up a glovebox, decommissioning or even dismantling alpha installations, how do you survey to provide assurance that there are no areas of contamination?

We are not talking here about mapping and quantification of the material but its real-time localisation, to get the answer right here and now.

Contamination probes for direct measurement of surface contamination from alpha emitters do exist but are far from being perfect in the field. Any progress in that area will mean the ALARA/ALARP principles are reinforced, the risk of contamination further minimised and the overall safety improved.

With alpha emitters, an improved lightweight, real-time inspection device that will identify areas of contamination and allow them to be targeted for clean-up would be great. What if an ideal tool for quality assurance, efficient waste segregation did exist? What if it also was giving you estimates of the activity levels of the hotspots in real-time too?