Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation, BNC, was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in San Rafael, California, with additional offices across the United States and a network of international representatives. The company designs and builds precision electronic instrumentation for test, measurement, and nuclear research.
That foundation is why this handbook exists. The radioisotope identifiers and detection systems described in these pages come out of decades of work alongside the responders, physicists, and program managers who use them. The instruments are built to perform in the field, and the guidance here is meant to help teams get the most out of them.
This book is written to teach concepts and field method, not to serve as a spec sheet. For any product detail, model number, or performance figure, verify against the current datasheet for your instrument and firmware.
David A. Brown is President of Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation. He has more than 30 years of experience in the instrumentation industry, with a focus on strategic growth. Under his direction, BNC has continued to expand its work in radiation detection and identification for first responders, HazMat teams, and the nuclear research community.
He is a graduate of San Francisco State University's Lam College of Business and lives in Northern California.
This handbook is part of the BNC "Nuts and Bolts" series, a set of practical field guides written for the people who carry the equipment. This volume covers radioisotope identification, RIID, for HazMat teams and first responders. Other volumes in the series cover other corners of detection and measurement in the same plain, operational style.
The series is designed to pair with hands-on practice. Companion learning, including refreshers and additional material, is available at academy.berkeleynucleonics.com.
The procedures and concepts here are written to stay useful across firmware releases and product revisions. Where this book mentions a specific instrument behavior, menu, or capability, treat it as a starting point and confirm the current detail against the operator manual and datasheet shipped with your unit.
The next edition will be better because of what readers send back. If you have a correction, a gap to fill, or a scenario your team handled, reach BNC through the contact channels in the back matter.
End of Handbook · Edition 1 · 5" × 8" Field Edition