Brookhaven Science Associates, the operating agency of the Brookhaven National Laboratory has entered into a four-year contract with Meadowbrook Partners.
The mentor-protégé agreement will allow Brookhaven to create new business prospects for a tracer technology designed to measure air flow and air quality.
Meadowbrook Partners, located in Wading River, NY, will become to exclusive subcontractor for the Brookhaven Laboratory during the four-year tenure during which it will promote perfluorocarbon tracers (PFTs) pioneered at the laboratory. Meadowbrook will receive guidance on business capabilities and technical issues such as networking with customers, tracking and packaging inventory, report writing, proposal development and business development from small business experts and the researchers at the Brookhaven laboratory.
PFTs are nontoxic, colorless and odorless gases used in testing airflow and in the detection of potentially hazardous materials. Up to eight distinctive PFTs can be released, sampled and tested by the PFT technology-based system. One of the applications of the system developed by the Brookhaven Lab has been used in the testing of control rooms located within nuclear power reactors to ensure that Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements for safety have been met. If an accident occurs, a reactor control room should be completely airtight to prevent radiation leakage and ensure that workers and equipment are not contaminated. Reactor control rooms need to be tested once every six years.
The laboratory’s division head, environmental research and technology, Paul Kalb stated that the technology can be used to study air exchange in large buildings in order to test if it can be used as a shelter in the event of a terrorist attack or to test the energy efficiency. Kalb added that the technology can also be used to detect the source of unwanted odor within a building.
The DOE-initiated mentor-protégé program will enable Meadowbrook to buy PFT testing equipment from the laboratory while the laboratory trains personnel at Meadowbrook to conduct tests.
Source: http://www.bnl.gov/