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Ted Bowyer, PhD
Laboratory Fellow, Physicist
Ted Bowyer, PhD
Laboratory Fellow, Physicist
Biography
In 1996, countries around the world banned the testing of nuclear weapons. A worldwide monitoring system that samples the air for telltale signs of nuclear explosions keeps countries honest and aware. Ted Bowyer has spent the last 25-odd years working on this monitoring system. The problem, though, is that all modern air has some forms of radioactivity in it already. Some are natural, like radon. Some are man-made, such as from nuclear power generation, medical treatments, or Bowyer's focus—banned nuclear tests.
"Our job is to separate all that activity and determine the signatures of what would be indicative of a nuclear test," said Bowyer.
Although the current system is exquisitely sensitive—capable of detecting only a few thousand atoms—there is still the problem of knowing if the radioactivity is new or old. Bowyer measures variations of the gas xenon to pin down the age of the captured signal. As forms of radioactivity age, they give birth to different versions of xenon called isotopes. The xenon isotopes also age and decay. By measuring the kinds and amount of xenon isotopes, researchers can backtrack to the original source.
PNNL's xenon monitoring technology dates back to the 1990s when Bowyer first started work on the topic. Recently, Bowyer and his team redesigned the instruments, using what they've learned over the years to improve it and update the computing side.
The monitoring system has been helpful outside of nuclear weapons, too. In 2011, it detected radioactivity from the Fukushima accident. Analysis of what the system caught provided insight about whether the radiation was coming from the damaged reactors or old, spent fuel. Then, a few years ago, Bowyer's team found radioactivity arising unexpectedly at the Nevada Test Site from decades-old nuclear tests.
Bowyer is a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has also been a scientific policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Agency.