Portable Hands-Free Radioactivity Detection Unit to be Featured at IEEE Homeland Security Conference outside Boston

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Attendees at the 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST '15) will have the opportunity to see a new hands-free portable radioactivity detection unit.

"It will distinguish industrial-type of radioactive materials and even nuclear materials that a terrorist might be using," said Frank Thibodeau, vice president of business development at Bruker Detection Corporation, which developed the device.

Set for the Westin Waltham (Mass.) Boston 14-16 April 2015, HST '15 (http://ieee-hst.org/) will bring together leading researchers and innovators working on technologies designed to deter and prevent homeland attacks, protect critical infrastructures and people, mitigate damage and expedite recovery.

Dr. Reginald Brothers, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under secretary for science and technology, will deliver the opening keynote on the agency's visionary goals.

Bruker's detection unit is carried in a 22-lb. backpack and doesn't depend on a wand. It speaks to its operator through an earphone and sends critical information to a command and control center.

"Targets can be moving, [the operator] can be moving or it can be stationary," Thibodeau said. "Whatever the case might be, it works just as well."

Thibodeau made his comments as a guest on the ScienceNews Radio Network program, The Promise of Tomorrow with Colonel Mason. http://www.promiseoftomorrow.biz/audio/020915/partone.mp3

Bruker Detection Corporation is "a worldwide leader in developing and manufacturing CBRNE detection systems for substance detection and pathogen identification in homeland security, defense and law enforcement applications." (CBRNE stands for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives.)

HST '15 will be the 14^th in a series that began after the tragedy of 9/11 when IEEE members in New England conceived of a conference to encourage technological development that bolsters U.S. security. International partners are encouraged to participate.

HST '15 is produced by IEEE with technical support from DHS S&T, IEEE Boston Section (www.ieeeboston.org), IEEE Biometrics Council and IEEE-USA. MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Raytheon, Battelle and MITRE are providing organizational support.

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SOURCE IEEE-USA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

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