Carbon nanotubes may reduce reliance on nuclear materials
The most pressing nuclear risk is the one involving a dirty bomb: Nuclear materials are used for routine operations by tens of thousands of commercial establishments, requiring a vast system of shipment, handling, and storage; many of these facilities, and practically all of the shipping procedure, are but loosely guarded, if that, offering easy targets for terrorists intent on obtaining the material; would that we had a technology which would reduce our reliance on nuclear materials; Applied Nanotech believes it has such a technology
As government contracts go, a $125,000, six-month contract is not exactly a headline-grabber. Still, the $125,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract which the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency (HSARPA) gave Applied Nanotech (ANI), a subsidiary of Austin, Texas-based Nano-Proprietary (OTCBB: NNPP), should be noted. The contract is for the development of a carbon nanotube-based ionizer source to replace nuclear radioactive sources in commercial applications. The contract is expected to take approximately six months to complete.
We have written about carbon nanotubes before, pointing to the benefits inherent in mastering the technology not only of producing them, but of producing them to order (the discussion of this aspect of nanotubes is rather involved: see HSDW issues of 26 June 2006 and 2 August 2006, cited below). The government’s interest in carbon nanotubes is prompted by worries about nuclear dirty bombs. It is one thing for a country such as Iran or North Korea to spend billlions and billions of dollars and many years on trying to master nuclear weapon technology. It is a very different — and much easier — proposition for an able terrorist to steal nuclear materials from any one of the tens of thousands of civilian and commerical establishments which use such materials routinelty. The stolen radioactive materials can then be mixed with conventional explosives to creat a dirty bob. In addition to the destruction wrought by the blast and heat effects of the detonation, a dirty bomb, depending on its size, could contaminate a large area with radioactive materials, necesitating an expensive and time-consuming decontamination campaign to make the area habitable again. Depending on the nuclear materials used and the dosage, more people in the affected area will die from radiation effects or suffer long-term debilitating ailments. The psychological effects will be incalculable.
Governments recognize the inherent risk involved in having so much nuclear material so readily accessible in so many thousands of places, places, moreover, where security is often insufficient or nonexistent. Which brings us to carbon nanotubes: The successful development of a carbon nanotube-based gas ionizer will offer an alternative for many of the currently existing nuclear sources, thus reducing demand for radioactive material. Lowering the need for radioactive material would decrease the possibility of theft or accidental radiation exposure, and reduce the need for hazardous material shipments and usage monitoring. A non-nuclear gas ionization source has an additional benefit in commercial applications by
