New technology may help nation's port-of-entry and border security

October 21, 2010—LANL researchers and collaborators from MER Corporation and Sandia National Laboratories have developed an oxide ceramic scintillator with high optical transparency that ultimately may be used in the detection and verification of shielded special nuclear material at the nation's ports of entry and in large panels for radiation monitoring along unattended U.S. air, land, and sea borders.

Scintillators, substances that glow when hit by high-energy particles or photons, are used to detect radiation.

The scientists sought to develop a scintillator that can be fabricated using existing ceramic forming techniques, primarily the hot-pressing powder method. These techniques can produce materials in large quantities and sizes, at fast rates, and at low cost. The materials can also be cast directly into their final shapes.

The resulting oxide ceramics have high mechanical strength, good stability in air and moisture, and high sinterability (ability to become a coherent mass by means of heat but without melting).