A portable swipe monitor for alpha contamination

A portable swipe monitor has been developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the state of New Mexico. The monitor is intended for use at New Mexico ports of entry to detect removable alpha contamination on shipments bound for the proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This detector uses Long-Range Alpha Detection (LRAD) technology, which monitors ionization created by alpha interactions with ambient air, and includes built-in background subtraction of external radiation fields and radon. Its sensitivity to alpha contamination is on the order of a few tens of dpm, and it has excellent linearity throughout its entire range of over 200,000 counts per minute of alpha activity. Designed to be used primarily in the field, the monitor is battery-powered and can operate continuously for up to five hours.