PNL awarded $3 million Army contract

MONONA, Wis., Oct. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Phoenix Nuclear Labs (PNL) announced today that it has been awarded a one-year, $3 million contract by the U.S. Army to build an advanced neutron radiography unit.

The neutron imaging system will be used for the nondestructive inspection of munitions, pyrotechnics and other critical defense components.  The company will deliver an upgraded, second-generation version of a similar system that it delivered to Picatinny Arsenal in 2013.  The new system is expected to generate 10 times the amount of neutrons, enabling faster performance, and will be capable of producing digital images that will improve the system's ability to analyze and store data.

"We are extremely excited to have this opportunity to provide state-of-the-art technology to our Armed Forces," said Evan Sengbusch, PNL's vice president of business development.  "Our hope is that delivery of this imaging system will take us one step closer to deploying neutron radiography capabilities across the DoD in order to save warfighter lives."

Neutron radiography is a nondestructive inspection technique similar to X-ray imaging.  However, neutrons, unlike X-rays, are able to deeply penetrate high-density materials such as shell casings and other metallic objects and interact strongly with lower-density materials such as carbon or hydrogen.  The Army has been seeking neutron radiography capabilities for decades, but until now only nuclear reactors could produce enough neutrons to take images in practical time periods.  The technical innovations behind the PNL generator have led to orders of magnitude increases in neutron yield compared to existing off-the-shelf technologies, without the safety risks normally associated with reactors.

Ross Radel, PNL's president, credited support from the Wisconsin congressional delegation as key to the contract success.  "Advocacy from Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., has been vitally important in getting a small company like ours in front of big customers like the Army," he said.

The PNL neutron radiography platform is the first system capable of bringing neutron radiography out of an R&D environment and into a production setting, similar to industrial X-ray systems.  This technology has the potential to greatly improve the safety and effectiveness of defense and aerospace components such as munitions, aircraft components, and composite materials.  The Army has also funded development of the PNL neutron generator technology for other applications, including the detection of improvised explosive devices.

About Phoenix Nuclear Labs

Founded in 2005 in Middleton, Wis., Phoenix Nuclear Labs has developed a proprietary, particle accelerator-driven, nuclear fusion technology that has applications ranging from medicine to national defense.  The company is focused on commercializing its core neutron generator technology for near-term applications, including neutron radiography imaging for the nondestructive evaluation and quality control of military and aerospace components, medical isotope production, and the detection of explosive devices.  For more information, visit: http://phoenixnuclearlabs.com.

SOURCE Phoenix Nuclear Labs