"Airport security boosted by radioactive scanner project"

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Space Science Technology Takes Airport Security onto New Level 
United Kingdom - The Scotsman


A ground-breaking ’drive-through’ scanner which screens for radioactive
material is being developed to improve security at airports, ports and other
significant buildings, thanks to a £99,000 investment from NESTA (the
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the organisation
which invests in UK innovation.

The innovation comes as experts warn of inadequacies in existing techniques
which detect radiation without identifying the source, resulting in
frustrating, expensive and time-consuming false alarms.

“Current technology does not distinguish between a dirty bomb and a cancer
patient, a truck load of ceramic tiles or a crate of bananas – all of which
are radioactive, to some extent,” says Dr Brian Lever, of Southampton-based
Symetrica Ltd.

“That’s not good enough in the world post 9/11, when security services need
to accurately identify radioactive threat materials. Symetrica’s unique
technology discriminates between materials which do not pose a threat and
those that do, offering a crucial new tool in the fight against terror.”

Gamma rays – the shortest wavelength electromagnetic radiation – are emitted
naturally by many things, from plutonium and other nuclear materials to
granite, coffee and fertilizer!

Any scanning equipment which detects nuclear radiation without being more
specific is bound to cause an operational nightmare for security staff
screening vehicles and cargo at busy ports and airports.

“The equipment immediately distinguishes between materials which are a
threat, and those that aren’t, on the spot without the need to send anything
off to a laboratory. It’s the logical step on from existing X-ray checks,
and it takes security onto a new level,” says Dr Lever.

Symetrica’s portfolio of gamma ray detector hardware and designs and signal
processing software has evolved from technologies originally developed for
space science.

The innovation was masterminded by Dr David Ramsden, then at the University
of Southampton’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, where he built an
international reputation for his expertise in developing radiation imaging
techniques.

Spun out of the university in 2002 to exploit the technology, Symetrica is
developing both a sophisticated new hand-held scanner – 10 times more
sensitive than competing models – and the revolutionary ’drive-through’
machine, capable of screening vehicles and cargo at speed.

The NESTA investment, through its Invention and Innovation programme,
enables Symetrica to produce a prototype detector system to demonstrate the
performance of its technology.

Mark White, Director of NESTA’s Invention and Innovation programme, said:

“Homeland security is one of the most pressing concerns in Britain today.
NESTA is delighted to be investing in an idea which has the potential to
radically improve screening systems at ports and airports around the world.”

Symetrica Ltd has appointed as CEO Heddwyn Davies, who has international
experience running VC-backed companies supplying detection and imaging
systems for defence and related markets.

Dr Lever, Symetrica’s Operations Director, was for many years a senior
manager within ICI and AstraZeneca as well as spending a period on
secondment to the DTI Innovation Unit.


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