A Universal Detection System is under Development by a US based team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory(LLNL), and has already been tested in lab and field experiments.
In their latest advance,the LLNL team has conceptually shown that they can almost simultaneously detect four potential threat materials- biological,chemical,explosives and radiological – along with illicit drugs.
Their work uses a technology which they call ‘Single-Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometry’, or SPAMS.
In lab experiments, SPAMS was tested against four types of materials terrorists might use- spores of a non-pathogenic strain of Bacillus anthracis(anthrax); diethyl phthalate (a nerve agent surrogate), natural cobalt powder (a surrogate for Cobalt 60 and other radioactive metals) and RDX(a high explosive).
In single and multiple agent tests, SPAMS accurately identified each substance and set off the correct alarms within an average of 34 seconds after their release into the environment.
ll of the measurements are achieved within 26 to 46 seconds after their release into the environment.
In field experiments, SPAMS has been tested at San Francisco International Airport.
The research team includes- Physicist and Chief researcher Matthias Frank, Physicist Paul Steele, Chemist Keith Coffee and many more.
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