Isotron To Develop Hand-Held Device For Detection And Removal Of Radioactive Contamination From Drinking Water

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has awarded Isotron a contract to develop a credit-card sized device for detecting and removing radionuclide contamination from drinking water.

Seattle, WA, (PRWEB) October 7, 2005 -- The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has awarded Isotron a contract to develop a credit-card sized device for detecting and removing radionuclide contamination from drinking water.

The development effort, led by Dr. John D. Whitaker, will be a collaboration with Prof. Daniel T. Schwartz at the University of Washington, and leverages both Isotron’s and Dr. Schwartz’s expertise in radionuclide decontamination, microfluidics, electrochemistry, and computer control.

Funded under ONR’s Expeditionary Unit Water Purification program, Isotron’s development effort will produce a device – tentatively called the WaterCard™ – which can rapidly detect and selectively remove soluble, aqueous radionuclide contamination. The WaterCard™ will reduce the impact of a radionuclide dispersal event such as a dirty bomb detonation, an accidental nuclear release, or the surreptitious terrorist contamination of U.S. water supplies. The WaterCard™ design is anticipated to be extendable to other contaminants as well.

The core of WaterCard’s™ functionality is Electrochemically Switched Ion Exchange (ESIX). Like conventional ion exchange, ESIX removes ionic contamination using a solid material with a high affinity for a target contaminant ion. Unlike conventional ion exchange, however, the solid ion exchange medium can be regenerated by applying an electrical potential. The ion exchange medium is therefore an electrode which can take up contamination from a dilute source solution, and expel said contamination into a concentrated waste solution.

In addition to functioning as a separator, ESIX electrodes can also function as detectors. Cycling the potential of an ESIX electrode immersed in an electrolyte produces a current response that is dependent on the concentration of target ion in the electrolyte. WaterCard™ will leverage ESIX’s dual functionality to both detect and purify.

WaterCard’s™ design incorporates microfluidic circuitry and innovative flow drivers to achieve a very small footprint, and will be constructed out of rugged, inexpensive polymers for extended use under field conditions. Combined with hand-held electronic instrumentation, WaterCard™ will be readily portable and ideal for expeditionary use.

About Isotron: Isotron has been involved in large scale radionuclide decontamination as well as chemical and biological agent decontamination and protective equipment since its inception in 1986. Isotron is located in Seattle, Washington. For more information, please visit http://www.isotron.net.

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