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Newsletter:  May 2002/ Issue 2
Award-Winning Nuclear Monitoring Device Becomes Commercially Available

The Radionuclide Aerosol Sampler and Analyzer (RASA), described by lead developer Harry Miley as, “an automatic monitoring device for nuclear debris—or any kind of radioactive aerosol in the atmosphere,” recently became available on the commercial market.

Development of RASA and a similar device with which RASA is commonly paired, the Automated Radioxenon Sampler and Analyzer, ARSA, began at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in 1992. At that time, five nuclear monitoring pilot projects were launched, and a down selection process took place to identify and fully pursue the two most promising concepts. While the RASA and ARSA projects have been pursued independently of one another, both project teams have shared the common objective of providing reliable means with which to monitor and verify compliance of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), intended to deter nuclear proliferation through prohibiting nuclear testing.

PNNL began conducting aerosol sampling and analysis of the atmosphere in the 1950s. PNNL commenced doing so regularly in the 1960’s, about the time the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty came into effect. What is special about RASA and ARSA is that these automated devices are more sensitive and effective than manual precursors. RASA samples and analyzes the atmosphere for radioactive aerosol particles by filtering huge volumes of air daily, drawing it through a filter that is the same size and material as the most efficient home furnace filters, and then testing the air for abnormal radioactivity. While this technique has been available since the 1960’s, PNNL researchers have automated the process and made it 300 times more sensitive than any pre-existing commercial device. ARSA tests for traces of radioactive xenon gas resulting from underground nuclear testing. PNNL researchers have also automated this process, collecting and analyzing gas samples every 8 hours, which allows the detection of very short-lived isotopes of xenon.

The failure of the United States to ratify the CTBT in 1999, and disinterest in the treaty expressed by the current US administration, have been a blow to developers of RASA and ARSA. As described by Miley, “With reduced emphasis on the CTBT many worried that interest in RASA and ARSA would dry up and blow away, but it hasn’t… it was a pleasant surprise to find that interest in monitoring is not just tied to the CTBT… perhaps September 11th is part of it, but there has been no downturn in interest as a result of failure to ratify.”

Also, the US does support the section of the CTBT calling for an International Monitoring System, or IMS. This global nuclear monitoring system would consist of 80 radionuclide aerosol monitoring stations, 40 of which would also be equipped to measure xenon gas. This network, largely consisting of RASA and ARSA technology, will ensure a 95 percent chance of detection of any nuclear testing in the world that vents to the atmosphere within two weeks. In addition, nations that have ratified the treaty are well on the way to creating the IMS, creating a demand for reliable verification technologies.

The market for RASA, priced at $200,000, has proven substantial; millions of dollars worth of orders are presently in place and “manufacturers are making them as fast as they can,” says Miley.

The CTBT Organization has placed orders for twelve RASA systems with an option to buy twelve more. The US Air Force and Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the German Institute for Atmospheric Research have placed orders. PNNL has three RASA systems operating for pure and applied science research, including one system located on Rattlesnake Mountain for use in an aerosol community research project on the transport of particulate matter from Asian dust storms.

RASA and ARSA are recently developed technology and join waveform technologies (seismic, hydroacoustic, and infrasound) in an interlocking monitoring scheme being applied within the CTBT. Vibrations in the earth, oceans, and atmosphere can detect and localize explosions. Devices monitoring these vibrations would detect nuclear explosions in a 100-mile radius within minutes. However, these devices would only be capable of demonstrating that an explosion had occurred. In particular, at low yields these techniques have difficulty in discriminating between normal mining explosions, earthquakes, and nuclear tests. In fact, there are millions of earthquakes per day that are similar to low-yield explosions. The positive proof obtained with radionuclide measurements from RASA and ARSA provide a great measure of confidence to the fast locating ability of the waveform technologies. Thus, in a sense, the technologies form a diverse and complementary CTBT monitoring network.

“What’s really special about ARSA/RASA,” says Miley, who also serves as CTBT technical expert for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s NA-241 Office which deals with monitoring policy, the Department of State, and the US delegation for the CTBT working groups, in Vienna, “is that they provide a smoking gun because they actually pick up part of the weapon in the filter.” While traces of nuclear testing from the 1970’s are still in the atmosphere today, short-lived radionuclides, which are not found naturally in the atmosphere, are a positive confirmation of recent nuclear fission.

In 1998, RASA won a Research and Development 100 Award. In 2001, the RASA and ARSA development teams won a Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for transfer of the device’s technology to the private sector.