CT company sends radiation equipment to Japan

Plainfield, Conn (WTNH) - A Connecticut company that makes equipment to sniff out radiation has sent some equipment to Japan.

The Plainfield company has been a lot busier in the past week or so. Workers are making cartridges which detect the presence of radioactivity. Those cartridges are put into air monitoring instruments, which RadeCo supplies to military agencies and nuclear power plants around the world.

The monitors are used by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army.

"You have one filter that is used for particulates, like dust, and then another filter for radioactive iodine, and that will sample it as a gas," said Keith Lovendale from RadeCo.

Those filters go onto the unit, which complete with a battery power supply, goes for about $5,000. The army just ordered $70,000 worth to be used in Japan, where the concern for radioactive contamination continues to grow.

"In Japan right now they're having rolling blackouts, so if AC power isn't available they wouldn't require a generator to operate the instrument. You can actually drop this air sampler some place, program it for a specific volume, and then leave the area. Come back later," said RadeCo's Paul Lovendale.

A crisis sparking a boost in business for this Connecticut company.

"We're happy that it's being used but we're not happy that the incident happened," Keith Lovendale said.

RadeCo also produces this device which can be put in your pocket.

"The badge has a film in here, which is a color metric film, which changes color with radiation exposure," Paul Lovendale said.

It detects the level of exposure and instructions on what to do about it.

"If this wasn't dark here, they would send them home. If it was dark, then they would know they would need some treatment," Paul Lovendale said.

These cards are carried by first responders, but RadeCo is also looking into manufacturing smaller, simpler ones which could be mass produced and carried by anyone living near a nuclear power plant.