A schematic of a possible setup for the detection of radioactive material inside a container. Image credit: UNISTA new method for detecting hazardous radioactive substances from remote distances has been developed by Professor Eunmi Choi and a team of UNIST researchers.

Using high-power pulsed electromagnetic waves, the higher sensitivity method can detect radioactive sources from greater distances.

With significant applications in the medical and power generation industries, Uranium-235 (an isotope of uranium) can also be fatal if leaked or used as a weapon, making its detection potentially life-saving.

However, Geiger Counters (traditional detectors of radioactive materials) have a limited range of detection: no more than 3.5 meters.

In the study, Professor Choi and her team detailed the demonstration of real-time radioactive material detection using a high-power pulsed millimeter-wave source.

"With the existing technologies, remote detection of radioactive materials is impossible when the measurement location is far from the radioactive source," says Dongsung Kim (Combined M.S./Ph.D. student of Physics), the first author of the study. "The detection sensitivity has been increased to 4,800 times, compared to the conventional theoretical sensitivity, enabling the detection of very small amounts of radiation."

"Depending on the equipment used, this method could scale to detect radioactivity at distances of at least tens of kilometers and possibly as far as 100 km," says Professor Choi.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.