Radioactive Material Security: Threat, Consequences, and Mitigation
Abstract:
In 1998, the International Atomic Energy Agency convened a meeting in Dijon, France, to start a discussion on the proper handling and protection of high-activity radioactive sources. The onus for this was that in the previous decade there had been several consequential accidents resulting in widespread contamination and deterministic effects to humans including death. Since that time, Sandia National Laboratories has conducted many studies on the use of radioactive sources and the associated risk. This presentation is a summary of the vast work that has been performed that includes analysis of the threat and consequences of dispersion of material, principles of protection of material, and replacement of sources with safer technologies.
Bio:
As a Systems Analyst at Sandia National Laboratories, Dr. Gus Potter provides technical analysis to U.S. government agencies by conducting endto-end systems studies and providing expertise in the radiological and nuclear threat and security areas. He has led studies on radiological and nuclear detection architecture, adversarial threat and risk, radiological consequences, and material properties and risk, which have influenced national policy on the protection of source material and detection strategies. He has also briefed U.S. Congressional subcommittees on the radiological and nuclear threat and participated in International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) working groups to devise new international security standards. In his previous work, Dr. Potter was responsible for both internal and external radiation dosimetry, including interpretation of radiobioassay models and measurements and implementation of thermoluminescent dosimetry technologies. Dr. Potter also serves as an adjunct professor in the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of New Mexico. He is active in the Health Physics Society and the American Academy of Health Physics (as Past President). He previously served as Chair, Board Member, and Exam Panel Chair of the American Board of Health Physics. Dr. Potter participates in standards activities as Vice Chair of the ANSI/HPS Accredited Standards Committee N13 and on three working groups of the International Organization for Standardization. He serves as an associate editor and regular reviewer for Health Physics and as a regular reviewer for Radiation Protection Dosimetry; he has written or contributed to over sixty technical reports and articles for various publications. In 2000, Dr. Potter earned his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he studied applications of internal radiation dosimetry models promulgated by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. He is a Distinguished member of the American Board of Health Physics (certified in 1997) and a Fellow of the Health Physics Society. He is the 2017 awardee of the William McAdams Outstanding Service Award from the American Board of Health Physics and the 2021 awardee of the Joyce B. Davis Memorial Award from the American Academy of Health Physics.
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