Manufacturer of Radiation Detecting Crystals Makes Hiram Home

Friday, August 1, 2008
Topics: Economy, Other
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The French company Saint Gobain was founded in 1665 as a supplier of glass mirrors to Louis the XIV. Today it’s a leading supplier of a different group of shiny objects - crystals that have the peculiar ability to detect radiation. ideastream®’s Gretchen Cuda visited Saint Gobain Crystals – which opened its new headquarters this week in Geauga County.

If you’re a radioactive particle in hiding, the last thing you want to encounter is a Saint Gobain crystal.  The French company is known for its specialized crystals, called scintillators, which glow bright blue in the presence of radioactive materials.  Researchers are using them to prospect for oil and mineral deposits, find water on the moon, and expose would-be terrorists at the nation’s border crossings – and they’ll soon be grown, right here, in a brand new facility in Hiram Ohio

OPENING CEREMONY:  The Saint Gobain Crystals plant in Hiram Ohio is now officially open, I would like to invite the first tour party into the building so you can see what it’s like.

A walk through the 110-thousand square foot plant reveals the thought and planning that went into its design.  There are special drains in the floor to collect and contain spills, a two megawatt generator to ensure the building never loses power, and a large humidity controlled room where there air contains virtually no water. They need all that, explains John Frank, head of crystals engineering, because creating the radioactive sensing crystals is a process sensitive to both temperature and humidity.  When exposed to even the smallest amount of water, the crystals melt faster than you can say wicked witch of the west.

FRANK: If I took a piece of sodium iodide out here right now and set it on the floor when we come back in an hour it will be a puddle of sodium iodide solution

Saint Gobain is one of the largest manufacturers of scintillator crystals in the world.  In six weeks they turn basic ingredients like sodium and iron into giant hockey puck-shaped crystals weighing more than half a ton.  Those crystals are later cut into various smaller sizes and shapes that find their way into CAT scanners, oil drilling guidance systems and the next generation of security devices used to scan cargo at ports and border crossings for illicit nuclear materials.  John Thomason is an advisor to the Department of Homeland Security.

THOMASON: So before the devices could only say ‘yeah, there’s radioactivity there’ – but it didn’t tell you anything about what the substance was.  And there are plenty of things that are brought in that are legitimate; cat litter, for instance.

The new devices are called “advanced spectroscopic portals” and consist of two fourteen-foot-high, bright yellow beams placed far enough apart so that a semi-truck, a railroad car, or a shipping container can easily pass between them.  Housed inside the beams are radiation detectors that contain the scintillator crystals.  Materials like cat litter or bananas contain small amounts of naturally occurring radioactive potassium or uranium.  Each emits a characteristic amount of energy that is translated into pulses of light by the crystals.  And when analyzed by a computer, Thomason says the pattern of radioactivity from bananas looks very different from bombs.

THOMASON: These devices will actually tell you what the substance is, and the police at the border can actually make a quick determination whether to let the person through or whether to take a closer look.

Technology based companies like Saint Gobain – with its highly skilled workforce and potential for growth are just the sort the State wants to attract and retain. And according to Martin Irvine of the Ohio department of development, 750-thousand dollars in grants and tax credits helped ensure the region was an attractive prospect.

IRVINE: We’re very excited that they decided to expand right here in Northeast Ohio.  This expansion could have taken place anywhere with in their footprint if you will.

That footprint includes offices in more than a half dozen international locations, but the company says, merci beaucoup—they’re happy right here— in a new facility they hope will be an industry model for years to come.  Gretchen Cuda, 90.3.