The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) this week made two awards for state-of-the-art trace explosive and narcotics detector systems that utilize non-radioactive sources in order to develop proper standards for testing performance.
The contracts were awarded to:
- Morpho Detection, LLC – $42,906.05
- Smiths Detection, Inc. – $33,556.00
Most systems deployed currently in the U.S. use radioactive sources to ionize and detect threat compounds. However, because of tightening NRC regulations regarding the management of radioactive sources, manufacturers are substituting non-radioactive sources into their detection systems that will eventually replace the currently-deployed systems.
See also: RFQ for Trace Detection Systems Without Radioactive Sources
