Nuclear Material Transportation System in Korea

Due to the terrorist attack on Sep. 11, 2001 and the discovery of experimental documents showing the possibility that Al-Q’aida had succeeded in building a dirty bomb, an act of terrorism relating to radioactive or nuclear materials have been recognized as a credible threat. Since then, the world has paid special attention in preventing such materials from being fallen into the hands of terrorists and being used to attack the people. Also, when a transportation accident occurs, it induces social confusion. It is very important for authorities to respond early. The purpose of this system is, in the rare event of an accident, increasing for communication capabilities to share specific information to relevant organization, the transporter and etc. We have developed a monitoring system to track the nuclear materials during transportation so as to defend our people and environment from the threats involving the dangerous materials. The system consists of a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag and reader, a GPS (Global Position System), Wireless Camera, Radiation detector, an electronics box, a database server, and an operation software. Field tests were carried out to characterize its performance. Test results showed that the unauthorized removal of nuclear material, suspicious behaviors of workers deviated from the transport plan, current position & status of in-transit material could be monitored in real-time by the system. It is believed that this surveillance system would contribute in protecting people from the potential dangers posed by the unauthorized removal and misuse of nuclear material and to strengthen international physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities.