Realistic Nuclear Detection Training In The Field Without Radioactive Sources - The Radiation Field Training Simulator (RaFTS)

Civilian and military responders around the world expend enormous effort and resources maintaining their readiness to respond to real-world emergencies. Their efforts include preparing for emergencies involving high-radiation sources or contamination scenes such as occur in transportation accidents with medical or other highly radioactive sources, nuclear power plant accidents (e.g. Fukushima), interdiction of criminal smuggling of radioactive sources, even radiological and nuclear terrorism. Unfortunately, we are not adequately prepared for the realities of emergencies for cases in which the radiation source presents a health hazard because of the significant safety, security, procurement costs and impracticality of using actual hazard-level radiation sources or spreading contamination. Emergency responders need to train in their home locations, using their actual operating equipment and protocols, against the most robust scenarios. Current training simulators are limited in a variety of ways and can’t adequately represent both the operational realities of training with actual operating responder equipment while also providing the most scientifically-sound scenarios to train against. To address this need, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) developed a next-generation training capability called the Radiation Field Training Simulator (RaFTS) for which we were awarded an R&D100 by R&D Magazine in 2017 and a TechConnect Defense Innovation Award in 2018. The RaFTS draws upon scenarios created from national resources such as the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC) and injects signals into operating detectors commensurate with how the trainee uses their instruments, fully enabling trainees to practice their response and reachback protocols (e.g., RadResponder). The RaFTS capability, now demonstrated on two different kinds of detectors, is intended to be inexpensive, work on a variety of instrument types, and will ultimately yield a giant leap in the ability to train against sources and scenarios that matter to emergency responders. This presentation will describe the current capability of RaFTS and discuss demonstrations in Washington, DC and Livermore, CA.