A critical shortage of He-3 gas has been revealed recently by expert groups (see reports here), who have urged that the government take action towards the development of alternative neutron detection technologies. Such developments are crucial to ensure the continuation of DNDO and DHS efforts to secure the country against radiological and nuclear threats, and also support commercial and research demand for neutron detectors in fields of neutron science, medicine, oil and gas exploration and basic low temperature physics. Currently all large scale applications of He-3 have been placed on hold awaiting a presidential commission decision on the priority of the different areas of need.

Proportional Technologies Inc. is bringing to market a technology for the detection of neutrons that does not require the use of He-3 gas. This development, funded over the past 5 years by the DOE, the DTRA and NIH, uses B-10, a material that is high in natural abundance, and has easy, economical isotopic separation methodology. The patented boron-coated straw (BCS) detector (U.S. Patent 7,002,159) can match or exceed the performance characteristics of typical He-3 tubes, and can support large-scale deployments; as such, it constitutes an excellent alternative to He-3 based detectors in the large scale applications of interest to the DHS and DOE, such as portal monitoring, stand-off detection, and portable devices that represent the greatest drain on He-3 world resources. 

We have already developed this technology for use in neutron scattering, a field whose He-3 requirement is second only to the security field. We are currently working under DTRA funding to ruggedize large meter square BCS detectors for field evaluation in 2010. Provided that government funding required to finalize designs and to scale up production becomes available, we estimate that the BCS will become the preferred He-3 replacement technology in the near term.