IAEA introduces app for radiation threat following alarm

IAEA has introduced a new app meant to help frontline officers react to radiation alarms triggered by people at airports or other points of entry and assess if there is a nuclear security threat or not. To do this, customs officers must follow a procedure to determine the nature of the triggering event. In most cases, the alarm is triggered by people who have recently undergone medical treatment with radiopharmaceuticals. The new app, Personnel Alarm Assessment Tool (PAAT), eases the control process by having the user insert data obtained from a brief interview with the person involved plus a radiation measurement. These details are then compared with a catalog of 70 radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine to produce a quantitative assessment of the likely source of the radiation.
With PAAT, the IAEA aims to improve radiation detection operations in various scenarios, including the possibility of supporting nuclear security measures during major public events.