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SIGMA

Summary

Terrorist attacks involving the use of proliferated radiological and special nuclear materials pose a potential threat to U.S. citizens and servicemembers. Early detection of such materials and devices made from them is a critical part of the U.S. strategy to prevent attacks. Lower-cost and more sensitive detectors, along with innovative deployment strategies, could significantly enhance detection and deterrence of attack. | This program evolved into SIGMA+

The SIGMA program aims to revolutionize detection and deterrent capabilities for countering nuclear terrorism. The desire for significantly lower-cost and more capable radiation detectors is a common element of multiple detection concepts-of-operations (CONOPs). 

A key component of SIGMA thus involves developing novel approaches to achieve low-cost, high-efficiency, packaged radiation detectors with spectroscopic gamma and neutron sensing capability. The program will seek to leverage existing infrastructure to help enable these next-generation detectors and their deployment in order to demonstrate game-changing detection and deterrent systems.

The SIGMA program delivered compact, inexpensive, and networked radiation detectors like this one that are now becoming part of the security infrastructure.

The SIGMA program delivered compact, inexpensive, and networked radiation detectors like this one that are now becoming part of the security infrastructure.


If SIGMA is successful, the ubiquitous availability of cheaper and more efficient detectors will permit ample CONOPs to enhance the security of U.S. citizens and servicemembers around the world.

 

The 1,000-detector deployment in Washington, D.C., marked the largest number of SIGMA mobile detectors ever tested at one time and a demonstration of the program’s ability to fuse the data provided by all those sensors to create minute-to-minute situational awareness of nuclear threats.
 

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