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Nicholson, Andrew

Publications and source records attributed to Nicholson, Andrew.

WoRDMAp Outbrief: Workshop on Radiation Detection Materials [Slides]

Project Goal: Identify pathway to reliably grow and fabricate high-performance radiation detectors for use in a variety of nonproliferation applications. 1. Create 3 working groups (semiconductors, inorganic and organic scintillators) that bring together international R&D subject-matter experts (national laboratories, industry, and academia), end users, and mission stakeholders 2. Reach expert consensus views regarding current materials related technology gaps and define prioritized R&D directions required to resolve these gaps 3. Envisage the future state of next-generation radiation detection materials and quantify the benefits to nuclear security applications 4. Provide a comprehensive expert report to DNN R&D program office to serve as roadmap with recommendations for future high-impact office investment in radiation-detection materials development

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Data for Training and Testing Radiation Detection Algorithms in an Urban Environment

The US government routinely performs radiological response deployments to search for the presence of illicit nuclear materials (e.g., highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium) in a specified area. The deployments can be intelligence driven, in support of law enforcement, and for planned events such as WrestleMania, presidential inaugurations, or political conventions. In a typical deployment, radiation detection systems carried by human operators or mounted on vehicles move in a clearing pattern through the search area. Search teams rely on radiation detection algorithms running on these systems in real time to alert them to the presence of an illicit threat source. The detection and identification of sources is complicated by large variation of natural radiation background throughout a search area and the potential presence of localized non-threat sources such as patients undergoing treatment with medical isotopes. As a result, detection algorithms must be carefully balanced between missing real sources (false negatives) and reporting too many false alarms (false positives).The purpose of this data set is to spur innovations in detecting, identifying, and localizing nuclear materials inurban search missions.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗