Radiation screening at the London 2012 Olympics

In 2011, the UK Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) CBRNe Unit, at HM Governments Home Office, tasked specialists from the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) to provide assurance to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). This assurance was to provide access to a unique knowledge base into the design, concept of operations and monitoring of the radiation screening capability to be deployed at the Olympic Park site in Stratford. Via a publicly tendered proposal, the ODA purchased a selection of commercial, off-the-shelf, radiation detection instruments. These were to be deployed at all pedestrian and vehicle entry points into the Olympic Park site, screening every person or vehicle entering the site for radiological or nuclear material. AWE provided scientific and technical advice to the ODA. Included in this was the deployment of a team of Scientific Liaison Officers (SLO). These SLO´s liaised with local security providing real time analysis of alarms. This presentation will outline the deployment of instrumentation, the concept of operations, and will concentrate on some of the data obtained. Each vehicle lane screened up to 225 vehicles per hour and by the end of the Olympic Games over 2,600,000 people had undergone radiation monitoring. In all there were a total of 239 alarms, 95 pedestrians and 144 vehicles. This presentation will include examples of the data and analysis obtained, in real time, during the preparation and duration of the Games.