ONE OF the problems with radioactive contamination is that it is invisible.
Smoke blackens, oil stains, chemicals discolour, but you can’t actually see
dangerous ionising radiation with the naked eye.
But now a British company is working on a system that shows up radioactivity
as a glow in the dark. With a pair of modified military night-vision goggles,
scientists monitoring radioactive contamination at the scene of a possible spill
would be able to spot smears of alpha-emitting radionuclides such as
plutonium.
The radiation goggles designed by British Instrument Consultants (BIC) in
Warrington, Cheshire, are based on an old technique. Early…
