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Sensor Placement Optimization Study for the Built Environment: Operational Use Cases

Systems of fixed-position radiation sensors can provide information that assists emergency responders following nuclear and radiological incidents. State, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) government agencies that implement systems of fixed-position sensors are faced with numerous decisions regarding sensor selection, quantity, and placement. To develop guidance on implementation of radiation detection systems, we simulated the release of radioactive material in an urban environment using a combination of three models: the Weather Research Forecasting (WRF), Quick Urban and Industrial Complex (QUIC), and Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) models. We then evaluated the performance of several hypothetical sensor systems. The small number of simulations we conducted are not sufficient to generate definitive design guidance for radiation sensor systems, but we did identify trends that would be of interest to emergency planners. For a scenario that releases 1000 curies of Cs-137, radiation detectors were needed at 500-meter intervals to have a high likelihood of event detection and to estimate source location and plume detection. We also noted that optimal detector altitude varied with distance to the source. We recommend additional research in this area be conducted to support developing sensor placement guidelines that expand on a range of locations, isotopes, activity levels, and different weather conditions. Original simulation strategies included a range of environments, additional radioisotopes (Am241 and AmBe), and a larger selection of sensor types. These types of expansions would support SLTT guidance on sensor system recommendations.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

IDAC-Bio, A Software for Internal Dosimetry Based on the New ICRP Biokinetic Models and Specific Absorbed Fractions

Radiation dosimetry is central to virtually all radiation safety applications, optimization, and research. It relates to various individuals and population groups and to miscellaneous exposure situations—including planned, existing, and emergency situations. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has developed a new computational framework for internal dose estimations. Important components are more detailed and improved anatomical models and more realistic biokinetic models than before. The ICRP is currently producing new organ dose and effective dose coefficients for occupational intakes of radionuclides (OIR) and environmental intakes of radionuclides (EIR), which supersede the earlier dose coefficients in Publication 68 and the Publication 72 series, respectively. However, the ICRP only publishes dose coefficients for a single acute intake of a radionuclide and for an integration period of 50 years for intake by adults and to age 70 years for intakes by pre-adults. The new software, IDAC-Bio, performs committed absorbed dose and effective dose calculations for a selectable intake scenario, e.g., for a continuous intake or an intake during x hours per day and y days per week, and for any selected integration time. The software uses the primary data and models of the ICRP biokinetic models and numerically solves the biokinetic model and calculates the absorbed doses to organs and tissues in the ICRP reference human phantoms. The software calculates absorbed dose using the nuclear decay data in ICRP publication 107. IDAC-Bio is a further development and an important addition to the internal dosimetry program IDAC-Dose2.1. Here, the results generated by the software were validated against published ICRP dose coefficients. The potential of the software is illustrated by dose calculations for a nuclear power plant worker who had been exposed to varying levels of 60 Co and who had undergone repeated whole-body measurements, and for a hypothetical member of the public subject to future releases of 148 Gd from neutron spallation in tungsten at the European Spallation Source.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

FRMAC Assessment Manual Volume 1 - Assessment Division Operations

In the event of a major radiological incident or accident, the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) will coordinate the federal agencies that have various statutory responsibilities and/or capabilities for responding to such incidents (Ref. FRMAC10). The FRMAC is responsible for coordinating all environmental radiological monitoring, sampling, and assessment activities for the response. For less severe radiological incidents, elements of the Department of Energy (DOE) Consequence Management (CM) program, such as the CM Response Team (CMRT) or CM Home Team (CMHT) may be activated to provide similar support activities to regional or local response assets. This manual describes the roles and responsibilities of the Assessment Division of the FRMAC during a response to a radiological incident. Every effort will be made in this manual in accordance with the Implementation of the National Incident Management System (NIMS)/Incident Command System (ICS) in the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) – Emergency Phase (Ref. RSL07) to use terminology consistent with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) for Incident Command System (ICS) organizations, planning processes, and leadership positions (Ref. FEMA17). This manual also applies to smaller scale CM responses that may involve the CMRT or CMHT elements without the formation of a FRMAC. It details the concept of operations for the Assessment Division, including common tasks performed by the Division. This manual also describes the organizational structure of the Assessment Division and roles of the personnel within the Division.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Microreactor Transportation Emergency Planning Challenges

This report discusses microreactor transportation emergency planning and response challenges. The emphasis of the report is on transporting a microreactor containing irradiated fuel by highway and rail. The report first discusses microreactors in general, including microreactor fuel types and the use of hazardous material in microreactor designs. The report presents a microreactor concept of operations for transport highway, rail, and vessel and presents several transportation regulatory challenges associated with microreactors. Updates contained in this report include the transportation implications of revising the uranium lung absorption category for tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel, discussion of exercises and drills including the 2024 Naval Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation Accident Demonstration with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the State of Idaho, and Tribal and State perspectives on microreactor transportation emergency response planning. Additional microreactor transportation external engagement activities conducted during FY2024 are also discussed. The report discusses the implications of the recent East Palestine, Ohio, rail accident for transportation emergency response planning. Included in this update is a discussion of H.R. 8996, the Railroad Safety Enhancement Act of 2024.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Integration of ecosystem science into radioecology: A consensus perspective

In the Fall of 2016 a workshop was held which brought together over 50 scientists from the ecological and radiological fields to discuss feasibility and challenges of reintegrating ecosystem science into radioecology. There is a growing desire to incorporate attributes of ecosystem science into radiological risk assessment and radioecological research more generally, fueled by recent advances in quantification of emergent ecosystem attributes and the desire to accurately reflect impacts of radiological stressors upon ecosystem function. This work is a synthesis of the discussions and consensus of the workshop participant's responses to three primary questions, which were: 1) How can ecosystem science support radiological risk assessment? 2) What ecosystem level endpoints potentially could be used for radiological risk assessment? and 3) What inference strategies and associated methods would be most appropriate to assess the effects of radionuclides on ecosystem structure and function? The consensus of the participants was that ecosystem science can and should support radiological risk assessment through the incorporation of quantitative metrics that reflect ecosystem functions which are sensitive to radiological contaminants. The participants also agreed that many such endpoints exit or are thought to exit and while many are used in ecological risk assessment currently, additional data need to be collected that link the causal mechanisms of radiological exposure to these endpoints. Finally, the participants agreed that radiological risk assessments must be designed and informed by rigorous statistical frameworks capable of revealing the causal inference tying radiological exposure to the endpoints selected for measurement.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A Multilevel Approach To Addressing Emerging Technologies In Nuclear Security

Emerging technologies present a unique set of challenges to operators and regulators. Although emerging technologies can be used to strengthen nuclear security systems, they also can increase risks to nuclear facilities. The disruptive nature of emerging technologies could also leave operators unprepared for threats to nuclear materials or facilities. To address the potentially dangerous consequences associated with these innovations, strong adaptive mechanisms and international cooperation on threat mitigation and technological integration are vital. This paper examines the nuclear security implications of emerging technologies from an institutional (as opposed to technology-specific) perspective. Drawing on insights from a recent workshop series hosted by the Stimson Center and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Global Material Security, as well as research funded by Global Material Security and separate research conducted by Stimson, the paper begins with a definition of emerging technology that bounds the scope of the problem while leaving some margin for expert interpretation. The subsequent sections highlight the challenges as well as potential benefits that these technologies pose at each level of the nuclear security establishment, from the operators of sites hosting radiological or nuclear material, to regulators and national policy makers, to international institutions. Each section also includes specific recommendations for incorporating emerging technologies into radiological and nuclear security planning.

Andrews, Ian↗

Transfer Factors for the FRMAC Assessment Manual and Turbo FRMAC to Improve Radiological Dose Assessment

The Turbo FRMAC analysis tool is used to perform complex calculations to quickly evaluate radiological consequences and aid in decision making during an emergency response by assessing impacts to the public, workers, and the food supply. Turbo FRMAC calculations are based on methods established by the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC). To be able to assess impacts, input data called transfer factors that describe radionuclide uptake by local plants and animals are required. During the code application exercises in late 2016, identifying, finding, and validating nonstandard transfer factors proved to be time consuming and diverted the teams’ activity away from other critical tasks. As a result, a task was undertaken to dramatically expand the list of available transfer factors (food and non-food) and incorporate these factors into Turbo FRMAC. This will ultimately result in improved efficiency of the assessment team to perform calculations during times when the FRMAC is activated and provide more defensible, vetted data from which to calculate results. As a result of these and subsequent exercises, transfer factors were needed for the following items: bell peppers, Christmas tree, deer, flowers, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, grapefruit, lichens, mushrooms, oranges, snap beans, squash, strawberries, sugarcane for sugar and seed, sweet corn, tea, tobacco, tree bark, and watermelon. To expand the applicability of the information tables, generic transfer data were also provided for common categories and recommendations were made for expanding the list of chemicals based on chemical similarity. The data presented in this report were compiled from recent literature with most of the data encompassing the period from 2000 to 2018. The following radionuclides were targeted during the literature search: elements associated with reactor accidents or nuclear detonations (Sr 89/90, Cs 134/137, Ce 141/144, Ru 103/106, I 129/131/133, Pu 238/239, Am 241, Zr 95, and Nb 95) and elements associated with industrial accidents or dirty bombs (Ir 192 and Co 60). Data from other elements were evaluated if they were identified during the literature search. In addition, reports were evaluated that were recommended by the research consultants. For each plant or animal transfer factor, the goal was to determine the geometric mean, the geometric standard deviation, the minimum, the maximum, and the number of measurements used. If only one measurement was available that was presented as the mean. Concentration ratios with large geometric standard deviations (GSDs) were generally the result of a paucity of measurements or a few disparate measurements. Measurement disparity was observed for data from different soil types. The geometric mean (GM) is a good reference value for planning and responses purposes, but the location-specific concentrations are unlikely to be similar to the model results. Recommendations for further work include: segregating the data to reflect the influence of soil type, developing approaches to incorporate animal data based on aggregated transfer measurements, and including data for foliar deposition on plants.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Role of a Chemist in Modern Industries: Design and Development of Nanoengineered Multifunctional Materials

During the past fifteen years significant investment has been made for the applications of nanotechnology in almost every aspect of life. Almost every area of research has projected improvements including biotechnology, bioinspired electronic, optical and radiological sensors, or a promise for the emergence of some novel device technologies. For such applications major focus has been placed on research nanoparticles, nanotubes nanorods and two-dimensional structures similar to that of graphene. Some near- term applications of nano- particles and nanowires have produced very promising results for better synthesis of energy storage materials, design of biologically active composites like apatites, laser host crystals, photodetectors and sensor materials for radiation detection. To achieve desired morphologies, nanomaterials can be utilized some organic melt and orient the grains by the directional solidification method. The organic treated materials produce different characteristics than coarsened oxide materials. The focus is also understanding the morphology and performance function in human organs that occur because of aging or disease, and responses to interventions. We annealed to determine the changes in morphologies and hence effect of aging. In this presentation, we will discuss correlation between the designed composition, micromorphology and the performance parameters of nanomaterials. To understand the mechanism of formation of nanoparticles, nanoboloids, fibers experimental details and observations on the of multinary compounds will be presented. These observations on the transition of nanomorphology can highlight the mechanism of the phase transition in some oxides and selenides.

Singh, N. B.↗

Cutaneous Radiation Injuries: REAC/TS Clinical Experience

Abstract The Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS) is one of the US Department of Energy (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Nuclear Emergency Response Team (NEST) assets and has been responding to radiological incidents since 1976. REAC/TS is in the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). A critical part of the REAC/TS mission is to provide emergency response, advice, and consultation on injuries and illnesses caused from ionizing radiation. Fortunately, radiation injuries are not frequent, but when they occur, they are more likely to be cutaneous radiation injuries (CRI) or internal contamination. In this paper, we will review selected cases from the REAC/TS experience in order to illustrate cutaneous patterns of injury and treatment options.

Public, Environmental & Occupational Health↗

QUIC-DEPDOSE: Software tools to prepare for and respond to nuclear emergencies

QUIC-DEPDOSE is a software application that calculates radiation doses from inhalation of radionuclides downstream from an atmospheric radiological release. Unlike other radiological modeling software, QUIC-DEPDOSE can provide accurate dose information in as little as an hour running on a regular laptop, allowing for use by emergency responders after an accident.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Developing Source Term Database for Advanced Reactors

A source term database is crucial to informing nuclear emergency response measures, enabling emergency responders to assess the potential severity of nuclear and radiological consequences. In recent times, various advanced reactor designs have come into operation, are under construction, or are being designed and developed. This report documents an effort carried out to develop a source term database for advanced reactors. The report covers key design features of these reactors and discusses radioactivity buildup and source term inventories of dose-significant radionuclides in the reactor core. For neutronic and depletion analyses, we used the SCALE code system, a computational suite for reactor physics, depletion, criticality, and sensitivity/uncertainty quantification. We used SCALE/TRITON to perform depletion calculations to predict cycle length and discharge burnup and to generate the ORIGEN reactor library. Subsequently, we used SCALE/ORIGAMI to calculate radioactivity buildup and, thereby, the source term inventories at the targeted discharge burnup, using the ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data library. This report covers several advanced reactors, including the KLT-40S, RITM-200N, VOYGR, and eVinci. However, other reactors, such as the RITM-200S and ARC-100, have yet to be investigated and will be explored in future efforts.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Statistical Uncertainty of Inhalation Dose Coefficients in Consequence Management: Propagated Dose Uncertainty in ICRP 66 Human Respiratory Tract Model

Reference inhalation dose models rely on deterministic biokinetics and reference computational phantoms, limiting their applicability to the variability present in population-specific exposures encountered in emergency response scenarios. Here, this study introduces REDCAL, a Python-based computational framework developed to propagate uncertainty in inhalation dose coefficients using the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 66 Human Respiratory Tract Model. REDCAL integrates ICRP deposition and clearance models, systemic biokinetics, and governing physics principles, and leverages Sandia National Laboratories’ Dakota toolkit for uncertainty quantification via Latin Hypercube Sampling. REDCAL was validated against DCAL, with biokinetic retention results differing by less than 1% and effective dose coefficients by less than 2% across all tested radionuclides. Stochastic sampling introduced variability in dose coefficients, with geometric standard deviations (GSD) in committed effective dose coefficients (CEDC) ranging from 1.0 to 1.5, based on lognormal distribution fits. Analysis demonstrated that variations in the activity median aerodynamic diameter (AMAD) notably influenced the computed CEDC values. Smaller particles (<1 µm) increased doses by 20–30% due to deeper lung deposition and prolonged retention for alpha emitting radionuclides, such as 241 Am and 239 Pu. Radionuclides with fast clearance, such as 133 I, demonstrated a dose reduction exceeding 50%, as AMAD increased beyond 5 µm due to upper airway deposition and rapid mucociliary clearance. The greatest GSD among the radionuclides reported in this study was for 241 Am. In most cases, the largest GSDs in the CEDC were associated with larger particle sizes, an expected outcome, as ICRP Publication 66 defines GSD in particle size as a function of AMAD, resulting in an extended tail of the lognormal distribution. The findings support improved inhalation dose assessments and enhance consequence management strategies for the U.S. Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center by quantifying uncertainty in dose coefficients and strengthening decision-making for emergency response scenarios.

Biokinetic Modeling↗

Idaho National Laboratory’s Mobile Hot Cell Transportation: Engineering Solutions for Global Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources.

Title: Idaho National Laboratory’s Mobile Hot Cell Transportation: Engineering Solutions for Global Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources. Abstract: The Mobile Hot Cell (MHC), currently under development by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for the Off-Site Source Recovery Project (OSRP), is designed to help international partners meet the unique challenges of end-of-life radioactive material management. The MHC will provide a critical resource for countries that require assistance securing and disposing of Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources (DSRS) and orphaned sources in challenging environments, allowing these sources to be secured against misuse and nefarious activities. The MHC is a rapidly deployable system for conditioning and preparing end-of-life radioactive sources for transportation or storage. It is designed to handle sources of up to 1,000 Ci Co-60 equivalent while maintaining full radiological and biological containment. It will be deployable within 48 hours of an alert, making it ideal for emergency situations. The MHC features an operational suite for control, support racks for electronics, pneumatics, and welding systems, and a modular robust steel structure providing radiological shielding and internal robotic support. This design allows configurations for multiple device types to be conditioned and the ability to safely manage routine issues such as leaking or damaged sources. The MHC has been designed with the transportation challenges of rapid deployment to difficult environments in mind. The system weighs approximately 150,000 pounds, with individual systems breaking down into pieces not exceeding 20,000 pounds. Components are to be transportable on standard 20ft ISO containers, with shielding shells on 20ft flat racks. It is estimated that a total of eight containers and flat racks will be required. The use of 20ft containers, as opposed to 40ft containers, minimizes the impact on less developed road infrastructures, enabling the MHC to be positioned in constrained environments such as hospital parking lots. The system’s modularity also allows for deployment using smaller equipment, such as a 10-ton boom truck or forklift, which is crucial given the potential logistical challenges in different countries. This transportation strategy, evaluated in collaboration with Utah State University, ensures the MHC can be deployed via ground, rail, sea, or air, addressing the primary concern of international transport logistics.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Benchmark Exercise Report for Experimental Study of Bubble Scrubbing in Water Coolant Pool

Mechanistic assessments of radionuclide release during postulated accidents are expected to be included in advanced reactor license applications. The mechanistic source term (MST) provides an opportunity for vendors to realistically evaluate the radiological consequences of an incident, and may aid in justifying reduced emergency planning zones and plant sites. However, the development of MSTs for advanced nuclear reactors is challenging because there are numerous phenomena that can affect the transport and retention of radionuclides. As part of a trial MST assessment for a metal-fueled, pool-type sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR), led by Argonne National Laboratory, a simplified radionuclide transport code (SRT code) was developed, which includes models to estimate the quantity of fission product aerosols scrubbed in the sodium pool during postulated accident scenarios. In a pool-type SFR, when fission products are released into the coolant pool due to failure of fuel pins, most of the radionuclides are scrubbed by the coolant pool, but some have the potential to migrate to the cover gas region through entrainment within gas bubbles. The SRT code contains a model that evaluates this scrubbing behavior and calculates the fraction of fission product aerosols that reach the cover gas. Due to a lack of available validation data for sodium pool scrubbing, the U.S. Department of Energy funded an experiment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to measure aerosol scrubbing by injecting air bubbles containing aerosol into a coolant pool. Prior to performing an experiment with liquid sodium, a water loop experiment was performed. Their experiment evaluated the effect of changing the aerosol size, aerosol density, aerosol concentration, bubble size, and pool depth on the aerosol scrubbing efficiency of the pool. In this benchmark experiment, the base tests were conducted by repeated tests of isolated bubbles. Afterwards, more prototypic tests with bubble swarms were performed to evaluate the interactions between the bubbles. The bubble swarm test was able to confirm that a larger amount of aerosol scrubbing occurred than the single bubble test. It was also confirmed that as the bubble size, aerosol density, and pool height increase, the extent of pool scrubbing also increases and does not change with the aerosol concentration. In addition, since the degree of scrubbing is the lowest at aerosol sizes between 0.01 and 1 μm, that is, the largest amount of aerosol is emitted, it was confirmed that the analysis of this size in MST is the most important. This benchmark experiment informs the direction of future sodium experiments.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Comparative Assessment of Radiological Consequences from Sabotage-Induced Releases in Diverse Microreactor Designs

Many microreactor design developers are planning to reduce on-site physical protection measures and emergency planning zones by relying on robust fuel and reactor designs and leveraging passive safety systems. These reductions raise the risk of sabotage at these microreactors. To evaluate these requirements, this study assessed the radiological consequences of sabotage-induced accidents at microreactors. For the assessment, five diverse designs, each producing 30 MWt, were considered. These designs included pressurized water microreactors (PWMs), sodium-cooled fast microreactors (SFMs), high-temperature helium-cooled prismatic microreactors (HTPMs), heat pipe–cooled microreactors (HPMs), and molten salt–cooled microreactors (MSMs). For each design, two postulated sabotage-induced accidents were defined along with the associated release percentages of fission products. Additionally, consequences from the release of activation products were assessed. With regard to evaluating physical protection and emergency planning requirements, the consequences of sabotage-induced accidents for each design type were found to be comparable. The differences were primarily because of the distinct fuel forms (and associated release mechanisms), burnup, and neutron spectra of the different microreactor types. Future effort will further investigate the release percentages of fission products to perform accurate dose consequence assessment.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Radiological Releases from Novel Fuel Forms in Advanced Reactors During Severe Accidents for Consequence Analyses

Various advanced reactor developers are exploring the potential for reductions in the size of physical security forces and emergency planning zones. These reductions are based on robust fuel forms and inherently safe reactor designs. However, such reductions in physical protection measures could increase the risk of sabotage. To assess the possibility of reducing these measures, sabotage-induced radiological consequence analyses were carried out. These analyses considered accident scenarios that were beyond design basis accidents and overly conservative (Shah, 2025a; Shah, 2025b; Shah and Hartanto, 2026), yielding very large release fractions. These fractions, which can be used to evaluate physical protection and emergency planning requirements, have been crudely determined and applied as demonstrations for a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) (Shah and Hartanto, 2025a), a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) (Shah and Hartanto, 2025b), a heat pipe–cooled reactor (HPR) (Shah and Hartanto, 2025c), and a molten salt–cooled reactor (MSR) (Shah et al., 2026). A Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) team used MELCOR—a fully integrated severe accident analysis code—to demonstrate the code’s capability to analyze advanced (i.e., not light water–cooled) reactors (including a fluoride salt–cooled high-temperature reactor [FHR]) and calculate radiological releases to the environment during severe accidents (Wagner et al., 2022a, 2022b, 2022c, 2023a, and 2023b). Although the analyses were carried out to demonstrate MELCOR’s growing capability, the release source terms were estimated for advanced reactors, providing valuable insights into the accident progression and radiological releases. These findings from prior SNL studies, including estimated source terms and related sensitivity studies, were leveraged to derive source terms for postulated sabotage-induced accidents. Insights from these sensitivity studies informed the scaling of SNL’s estimated source terms for the defined accident scenarios. The derived release fractions for the severe accident scenarios for the respective reactor designs can be used to perform more nuanced dose consequence analyses to evaluate the reactors’ physical protection and emergency planning zone requirements. These analyses are in accordance with the risk-informed, performance-based approach proposed under 10 CFR Part 53. This study builds on the prior source term analyses and associated sensitivity studies by SNL to derive time-dependent and design-informed release fractions. Section 2 describes the diverse advanced reactor designs analyzed by the SNL team. Section 3 discusses the severe accident analyses, the release fractions calculated, and the limitations and assumptions of the demonstration project. Section 4 presents the release percentages derived for the hypothetical sabotage-induced severe accidents at the advanced reactors. Section 5 summarizes the study’s findings and conclusions.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

A multi-modal scanning system to digitize CBRNE emergency response scenes

A handheld system developed to digitize a contextual understanding of the scene at a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and/or explosives (CBRNE) events is described. The system uses LiDAR and cameras to create a colorized 3D model of the environment, which helps domain experts that are supporting responders in the field. To generate the digitized model, a responder scans any suspicious objects and the surroundings by carrying the system through the scene. The scanning system provides a real-time user interface to inform the user about scanning progress and to indicate any areas that may have been missed either by the LiDAR sensors or the cameras. Currently, the collected data are post-processed on a different device, building a colorized triangular mesh of the encountered scene, with the intention of moving this pipeline to the scanner at a later point. The mesh is sufficiently compressed to be sent over a reduced bandwidth connection to a remote analyst. Furthermore, the system tracks fiducial markers attached to diagnostic equipment that is placed around the suspicious object. The resulting tracking information can be transmitted to remote analysts to further facilitate their supporting efforts. The paper will discuss the system's design, software components, the user interface used for scanning a scene, the necessary procedures for calibration of the sensors, and the processing steps of the resulting data. The discussion will close by evaluating the system's performance on 11 scenes.

Salathe, Marco↗