Argon Electronics is delighted to announce that the award-winning Radiation Field Training Simulator (RaFTS) has been selected to feature at the inaugural INMM & ESARDA joint annual meeting which will take place virtually in Vienna, Austria this August 23rd to September 1st, 2021.
This year’s event will mark the first combined meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) and the European Safeguards Research and Development Association (ESARDA) and has attracted a record 650 abstract submissions, more than double those received in 2020.
In the paper entitled ‘RaFTS: Reducing Dose by Simulating Sources’, representatives from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will detail the story behind the project so far and what lies ahead in the development of the next generation of RaFTS.
As many radiological instructors will attest, the effectiveness of existing spectrometry-based radiation scenarios can often be limited by the safety considerations of working with even the smallest quantities of hazardous high-radiation sources.
Training that involves the use of simulator detectors, meanwhile, offers many benefits but can also sometimes mean that certain key elements of live radiological response are not always able to be fully experienced.
RaFTS offers a powerful new solution to these training challenges by enabling first responders to prepare for the realities of real-world radiological emergencies by training against safe electronic “live” sources while using their own detector equipment.
The RaFTS project has combined LLNL’s substantial radiological scenario-development expertise with Argon Electronics’ world-leading simulator training capability to create a training system that replicates all of the physics of real-world use in hazard-level radiation situations.
In 2019 RaFTS received a two-year $750,000 Department of Energy (DOE) cooperative development grant, together with an almost $1.8 million contribution "in kind" from Argon Electronics.
Since then, LLNL and Argon have collaborated with leading detector manufacturers to successfully integrate the RaFTS technology within ORTEC’s Detective X Spectrometer and the TerraTracker ARAM mobile detector.
In August 2020, Argon and LLNL also announced the signing of an exclusive commercialisation and distribution license which will enable the RaFTS technology to be applied to an even wider range of CBRne and HazMat detector products.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of RaFTS in enhancing your radiological programmes of instruction please contact the Argon team today.
Argon Electronics is also keen to hear from detector manufacturers who would like to be a part of the next commercial stage of RaFTS.
