October 2005

Isotron Lock-down Technology Featured in Science News

(excerpted from Sciencenews.com on October 29, 2005)
Ghost Town Busters: After a dirty-bomb attack, special formulations could counter radioactive contamination
by Peter Weiss

“During a simulated dirty-bomb attack staged in Seattle in the spring of 2003, "one of the lessons learned was that [responders] had nothing to stop the spread of radioactive dust," Brethauer says.

"The first step has to be to prevent further migration" of the bomb's fallout, agrees chemical engineer Robert C. Moore of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. Immobilizing radioactive material may also enable rescue workers to do their job without becoming contaminated.
To meet those needs, researchers have been devising sticky coatings that can be sprayed from trucks and robotic sprayers or applied as paint is. The coatings have to adhere even in foul weather, maintain their integrity as vehicles roll across them, be environmentally benign, and, ultimately, be easy to remove.

Fixatives developed in the past were designed for use only on a small scale and in controlled environments, such as inside the containment building for a nuclear-power reactor, notes physicist Christina A. Lomasney, who heads the Seattle-based company Isotron Advanced Polymer Composites.

At the request of TSWG, Isotron has just developed a polymer coating that might be valuable after a dirty-bomb attack. Tests earlier this year confirmed that firefighters using standard equipment could add the material to water rushing through their hoses, just as they now add foaming agents to more effectively smother fires.”

Find the full article at ScienceNews.org

Isotron Featured in Washington CEO Nanotechnology Special Report

Isotron was featured in Washington CEO magazine’s Special Report on Nanotechnology this month. The October edition describes leading edge research projects and companies that are using nanotechnology in revolutionary ways and in novel applications. Isotron was specifically called out in the report for the Company’s use of a “bottom-up” approach to polymer design for military protective coatings and homeland security applications. The Nanotechnology Special Report can be found on the Washington CEO website at http://www.washingtonceo.com.

Isotron to Develop Handheld Device for Detection and Removal of Radioactive Contamination from Drinking Water

SEATTLE, WA, October 4, 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. Funded under ONR’s Expeditionary Unit Water Purification program, Isotron’s development effort will produce a device – 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.