Comprehensive Nuclear Material Surveillance with a Radiation Detector-Equipped ARG-US RFID System*

Comprehensive monitoring and tracking of sensitive nuclear materials can be achieved with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, resulting in significant improvement of the operating efficiency of nuclear and radiological facilities. A system, called ARG-US, has been developed by Argonne National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Packaging and Certification Program, for use in managing sensitive nuclear and radioactive materials. Several ARG-US RFID systems are in various stages of deployment and advanced testing across DOE sites. ARG-US utilizes a suite of sensors in tags to continuously monitor the state of health of the packaging and promptly disseminates alarms to authorized users and responsible parties via a secured local network and/or the Internet. In conjunction with available in-vehicle cellular and satellite communication packages and global positioning system receivers and the management infrastructure available from DOETRANSCOM, the ARG-US RFID platform can monitor and track assets in transit as well.