What after a nuclear accident?

Human race has the ability to learn after disasters and we are looking for solutions already in use to be prepared for the next future.

Our research has been positive. We have found a very good example in Spain. A company called Indra, leader in CBRNe not only in its domestic market but also in Europe has achieved solutions in this field, proven and in use since 1989.

Indra has developed capacities organized in six groups to offer response to natural disasters, industrial accidents, terrorism events and other incidents related to CBRNe. Indra has a relevant number of contracts and references that support its competitiveness and strength as a reliable provider related to each of above mentioned capacities.

After Chernobyl accident Indra began to think the challenge of developing “CBRNe Systems”. At that moment they thought in the dimension of these potential threats.

Indra’s engineers had the knowledge as to start with this kind of Project; furthermore they decided to strength this new area.

As an example, since 1989, Indra was selected by the Spanish Government to manufacture and supply sensors to be implemented all around the country as a Radiological Alert Network (RAR) compound by 902 sensors, gathering information from the radioactivity level, 24/7, each year.

So, Spain is able to identify pretty soon any kind of radiological threat at a very first moment and react accordingly and reduce in this way the consequences of the incident.

 

From the 80’s, the situation in the world has changed a lot. Accidents such as Fukushima, in Japan, Bhopal, in India, flooring in Hungary after the aluminum raft broke, and many other unknown accidents, has pushed to the world society to require a higher control and response capacity.

If looking more in deep into nuclear and radioactive incidents, Indra has contracts for Spanish and European clients. Just as an example, in 1995 Indra awarded the contract of the Zorita Nuclear Plant in Spain, to control the quality of the underground waters to identify any radiological leakage within the aquiferous level by means of a mathematical model to be aware of this kind of critical threat.

Nowadays Indra has developed the radioactive waste management system in Spain, contracted by ENRESA. This allows controlling all the radioactive material from its origins to the temporary storage. Also, Indra is connected with the Spanish Nuclear Council by means of this system to inform about any possible incident.

Other example is the supply of a radiological monitorization laboratory for the dismantling of the Kozloduy Nuclear Plant of Bulgaria in order to check the radiological dose and dose rate in humans after working at the nuclear plant. This allows decontamination in case of high levels of radiation.

At last but not least Indra has the knowledge in dismantling nuclear plants and has shown it in real. So Spain is well prepared and owns the capacity and tools to react active and passive to any of these potential disasters through its national company Indra.

Leaving the nuclear and radiological capabilities and if we focus in the other threats and coming back to the six groups in which Indra has experience, we can talk about the developed and supplied projects.

 

In this line, to ensure the security and safety as far as technological risks or CBRNe risks is concerned, at the first time, users should be count with systems for detecting or getting an alert, as well as reconnaissance vehicles, capable of detecting different kind of contaminant agents.

 

In a second phase, once detected the contaminant, it should be used fixed or deployable laboratories, by means of which identify the kind of threat, initially detected.

 

Also is needed to protect critical infrastructures, such as nuclear plants, location with high concentration of people as Olympics games, etc, official buildings, etc, selecting for that early alert devices and detection system.

 

After that, it should be needed decontamination systems, such as personal, material or even water, contaminated after any incident.

 

As a higher level, it is almost mandatory to count with a command and control center (C4I), which would coordinate the performances to carry out, having a global vision of the situation and taking the right decisions in each situation.

 

Finally, the continuous training of the people is needed, because of the complexity of the situation to response.

For that reason, would be needed CBRNe training and simulation systems.

 

After defining the main systems that the user should be count with, now we are going to describe the specific Project that the company Indra has carried out during last years related with the previous capabilities, as well as the developments under Research and Development programs that this company is nowadays developing.

 

Among the main projects, there is one of the most important, won and signed last year, 2010, to develop and deliver a CBRN Mobile Field Laboratory to the Turkish Land Forces.

The mobile laboratory is integrated in a module which allows transportation by helicopter, cargo aircraft or lorry to the operation area.

The solution provides operators with a clean and safe environment where the samples can be analysed and the results transmitted. The system also incorporates a decontamination shower to prevent transfer of possible contaminating agents between external and internal areas.

 

In addition to this contract, the company was awarded another project by the European Defence Agency (EDA), also in the area of CBRN security.

 

In this case, the company will define the future European Command and Control system to tackle CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive) threats.

 

Indra will undertake the development of the technical and operational requirements as well as the most adequate architecture for the future command and control system.The solution seeks to offer a global vision of all CBRNE information existing in the European Union. For this reason, it will process information coming from detection and alert devices deployed in member countries. Besides this, it will gather information from its own sources, external services or other intelligence mechanisms.

 

This year, also the European Defence Agency (EDA), awarded to Indra with the design and delivery of a deployable laboratory to carry out and exploit the information got from incidents with Improvised Explosives Devices (IED), including those potential CBRN agents.

 

As far as Reconnaissance systems are concerned, Indra developed in the middle of the 90’s, a Chemical and Radiological reconnaissance vehicle to be used by the Spanish Civil Protection.

This system is able to monitorize the chemical and radiological contamination, including meteorological information (pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind speed and wind direction) in order to know what would be the evolution of the contamination. Also this unit has the ability of managing and assessing the gather information to be sent to the command and control center previously commented.

 

As far as the teaching is concerned, Indra also has developed from 2000 an e-learing application related with the CBRN prediction as well as evolution of the contamination for the training of the military students.

 

Changing of matter and focus on the future of the indra’s developments, we go through the Research and Development projects, either developed or underdevelopment by this Spanish company.

 

One of the most important challenges of this company is the projects related with explosives and chemicals stand-off detection, over which they are working.

 

Furthermore, and as an example they inform us about a Project, named OPTIX, which is able to detect explosives signs in micrograms up 20 meters and determine the kind of explosive of the sample on the surface.

 

The last challenge for this development is to reduce the size and place on a robot, to be more portable and might be used in different scenarios.

 

This solution, will allow, for instance, determine whether a parked suspicious vehicle in any airport or rail station, etc, brings any kind of explosive, without any personal risk since the analysis would be made at distance. So far there is not any system fully developed with this features, so it is a solution that will have a very profitable and successful future.

 

Among other R & D projects developed by Indra, we found the Project named SEDUCE, financed by the Spanish CDTI to developed the LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Structure) technology. Within this project, the company is also developing and enhancing some radiological solutions to improve the reliability and sensibility of some detection technologies, such as plastic detection, NaI (Tl) technology, etc.

 

Other kind of research within Indra is focused to develop UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), considering also the capability of integrating CBRN sensors.

 

This kind of solution will allow either to perform measures or survey wide areas without any risk for people and with a lower cost, in comparison with the actual personal surveillance.

 

Summarizing, Indra is a lead company in CBRN matters and that is investing time and Money in new developments for the next future, which solution will be used by military and civilian first responders units.