Radiation detectionUniversal Detection unveils radiation detection smartphone app

Last week Universal Detection Technology unveiledits first generation smartphone app designed to detect nuclear radiation levels on a variety of surfaces including food.

The RadSmart device, developed in conjunction with Honeywell, is capable of measuring radiation levels and sending the collected data to a smartphone.

The device was developed in response to growing concerns over food contamination following the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant last March. Japanese consumers have been wary of consuming food after it was revealed that radiation had been detected in everything from vegetables, beef, milk, and baby formula.

“A year after the Fukushima disaster, the focus of the Japanese government has increasingly moved to the decontamination of the disaster area,” said Jacques Tizabi, the chairman and CEO of Universal Detection. “RadSmart has been designed for this specific scenario as it will be able to geo-locate the particular test surface and compare data before and after decontamination.”

Armed with the device, users can detect radiation contamination in food or other surfaces, log the readings, and share the readings with others via a social networking feature.

RadSmart relies on a Cesium Iodide (CsI) scintillator to detect radioactive gamma rays as they are the most sensitive detection mechanism for gamma rays. According to a release by Universal Detection, the device has a detection range of 0.001 to 9.999 µSv/h, making it sensitive enough to measure normal radiation levels to 100 to 200 times that intensity.