Radiation detection market to see accelerated growth

Published 29 August 2011

The radiation detection industry will see accelerated growth as a result of ongoing homeland security concerns to greater concerns about safety in the nuclear power industry; the growth will involve both increases in the volume of materials required, and in the types of materials being sought

The radiation detection industry will see accelerated growth. The reasons for this spurt of growth range from ongoing homeland security concerns to greater concerns about safety in the nuclear power industry.

NanoMarkets, a Glen Allen, Virginia-based research group, says that radiation equipment for both diagnostics and therapeutic applications will also proliferate as populations continue to age. Such trends will create new opportunities for the firms that make radiation detection materials of various kinds. These opportunities will include both increases in the volume of materials required, and in the types of materials being sought. The radiation detection market is looking for materials that can provide more accurate and useful readings and also for those that can lower costs.

Radiation detection materials have traditionally been classified into two different groups: scintillation detector materials and semiconductor-based detectors. Sodium iodide has been the industry standard for scintillation detectors, but it is fragile and moisture sensitive.

With the heightened need for radiation detection, NanoMarkets believes that there are now growing opportunities for new materials such as Bismuth Germanium Oxide (BGO), Lutetium Oxysilicate (LSO), and Strontium Iodide. These newer materials have the potential of providing higher resolution, lower cost, and more physically robust solutions than the current sodium iodide detectors.

With regard to semiconductor radiation detectors, current materials such as Si and Ge detectors have excellent sensitivity and resolution, but have the drawback of needing to be cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures for optimal performance. Such cooling is routinely done for medical and scientific applications, but it is impractical for homeland security and mobile applications. NanoMarkets thus sees new business potential for new alloys that have the potential for a similar resolution to Si and Ge, but with good performance at room temperature and at lower cost.

NanoMarkets have issued a new report – “Radiation Detection Materials – 2011” — which offers an analysis of the opportunities for firms in the radiation detection material sector. In addition to providing an analysis of the commercial potential for the new materials and discussion of the strategies that are being deployed by firms active in this sector, it includes a detailed eight-year forecast of radiation detection materials broken out by material types and market application.