INEEL Develops Lab on Wheels for Hazmat Work

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (Idaho Falls) on Nov. 10 turned over to the U.S. Army a $4-million laboratory built into a customized Winnebago. INEEL had been under contract to the army to design and assemble this laboratory on wheels since 1997.

One of the laboratory's equipment looks for hazardous materials inside closed containers. Formerly someone had to drill into the container to remove some of the substance to identify it.

Other lab equipment discerns gases in air and residue in soils.

The laboratory also has computers that can transmit the gathered data anywhere in the world by satellite.

Many of the technologies were pioneered by INEEL, according to the Post Dispatch, which reported on the Winnebago's delivery.

Gus Caffrey, a physicist at INEEL developed the contained-material-analysis instrument in 1990. It uses a neutron beam to produce a chemical fingerprint of the contents without having to touch or open the container.

The beam of neutrons induces the contents to emit gamma rays with a signature singular to material within.

The mobile laboratory also houses equipment to X-ray containers, using digital computing instead of film to locate objects within.

Also, there is a laser-based instrument to identify the contents of glass vials or jars and another instrument to assess whether chemicals have leaked into the surrounding soils.

With the latter instrument, only a tiny sample of earth—enough to fit on the head of the nail—need be bombarded with radium tetraoxide molecules, ejecting molecules of the sample.

Measuring the mass of the ejected molecules provides the information for determining whether the soil is clean or contaminated, said Gary Groenewold, an INEEL chemist.

Edited by Paul Hersch