Radiation Detection & Identification

Who this is for

Bomb squads and tactical teams with radiological response authority, HazMat teams, regional WMD task forces, federal agency personnel, and emergency responders supporting national special security events or high-profile venues where a radiological scenario is within threat scope.

What the course covers

• Radiological threat recognition — what a realistic radiological device looks like, how it presents at a scene, and what the field indicators are.
• Isotope identification (RIID) operations — hands-on with hand-held RIID tools, interpreting results, and triaging naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) from threat sources.
• Personal radiation detector (PRD) use — alarm response, directional search, and integration with patrol and screening workflows.
• Dirty bomb / RDD response — cordon sizing for radiological releases, decontamination staging, and evidence preservation under radiological constraints.
• Source location and standoff — inverse-square reasoning applied to the field and to protective posture.
• Interagency coordination — working with FBI WMD, DOE, NEST, and state radiological authorities.

Why this matters

Radiological response is rehearsed far less often than IED response, yet the consequences of a mishandled scene are outsized. Federal partners expect local and state responders to arrive with baseline competency — this course builds that competency on tools that are already in many agency inventories but rarely drilled.