AMETEK‘s [AME] ORTEC Products Group has received a contract from New Mexico to supply a spectroscopic portal radiation monitor to be used at a port of entry to screen commercial vehicles entering the state from Mexico in order to interdict illicit nuclear materials. The portal monitor will be used as a secondary screening system. The portal monitor is based on the company’s high-purity germanium (HPGe) gamma ray detectors and its nuclear threat identification software. The spectroscopic portal is different from what the company had offered the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office under the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal program several years ago. The HPGe detectors can discriminate between naturally occurring radioactive materials and potentially harmful radiation sources. Naturally occurring radiation sources are the cause of frequent false alarms with conventional radiation portal monitors. AMETEK has been selling its various types of radiation detection systems to state laboratories and homeland security agencies for a number of years although this is the first sale of a portal monitor to a state, Dan Upp, vice president at AMETEK’s ORTEC Products Group, tells TR2.
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