New technology from U.S. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is engineered to help first responders, radiation specialists and nuclear operators detect uranium and plutonium when responding to an emergency nuclear event. The Colorimetric Detection of Actinides (CoDeAc) system uses rapid color detection within one minute — purple for uranium and pink for plutonium — to indicate possible nuclear contamination.

Innovyz USA licensed the technology and created the start-up company CoDeAc Solutions to sell it for commercial use. The company sees great potential for CoDeAc in various sectors, including military, security and civilian organizations.

“We believe that CoDeAc can solve multiple challenges across use cases and sectors — and not just in the security and defense sectors. We see promising applications for the mining and energy sectors as well, as we believe it could be a useful tool for aerospace companies seeking to create next-generation propulsion systems. Above all, we see a future that is enhanced by the existence of CoDeAc,” said Innovyz USA general manager Scott Nuzum.

CoDeAc changes to the color pink when plutonium is detected and purple when uranium is detected. Source: INL

INL researchers are now expanding the utility of the technology by developing a solution that would detect bodily contamination. The goal is to reduce sample collection and analysis time from hours to minutes to aid first responders and the general public when dealing with contamination caused by conventional explosives dispersing radioactive material.