Mini radiation detector to be used to find nukes  December 13,
2009 12:00:00 AM PST When NASA's Messenger satellite made a
flyby of the planet Mercury a few weeks ago, it used the
smallest, most accurate radiation detector ever developed. That
same technology will now be put to use on Earth to find smuggled
nuclear material.  Hand-held nuclear threat detectors are in the
works.  Morgan Burks recently held in his hand the future of
nuclear detection:, a High-Def gamma ray identifier. Burks is a
physicist at Lawrence Livermore Lab and the device's designer.
"You need a high resolution device that can tell you, 'Yes, it
is uranium or plutonium', or, 'No, it's a medical source.' for
example. And, you need a hand-held device because you have to be
able to carry it in maybe an emergency situation to a lot of
locations like border crossings, shipping ports, and so on."
Until now, you couldn't have both, because a gamma ray detector
needs its own extreme refrigerator. You could have a lo-res
handheld detector like