Radiation safety

Emergency Vehicles to Help Map Radiation Threat in City

A radiation threat detection system was successfully tested recently by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

DARPA’s SIGMA program—whose goal is to prevent attacks involving radiological “dirty bombs” and other nuclear threats—concluded its biggest and longest test deployment of vehicle-mounted radiation detectors in Washington, D.C.

For approximately seven months, the fleet of D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services ambulances was outfitted with DARPA-developed nuclear and radiological detectors, providing the first city-scale, dynamic, real-time map of background radiation levels throughout the Capital as well as identifying any unusual spikes that could indicate a threat.

According to DARPA’s website, because medical and fire emergencies occur in every corner of the District every day, emergency vehicles equipped with radiation detectors provide an excellent means of achieving a large-scale scan for radiological risks.