DOE aircraft on sniffing mission

Most of the time, the Department of Energy aircraft don't fly IFR, so they are not tracked on the internet. Perhaps due to cloudy weather, they have been flying IFR lately.

Energy 32

N-number : N7232R
Aircraft Serial Number : BL-69
Aircraft Manufacturer : BEECH
Model : B200C
Engine Manufacturer : P&W CANADA
Model : PT6A-42
Aircraft Year : 1984
Owner Name : UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Owner Address : 232 ENERGY WAY # 8
NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV, 89030-4199
Type of Owner : Government
Registration Date : 14-Jan-1986
Airworthiness Certificate Type : Standard
Approved Operations : Normal

Flightaware now has a google earth interface, so you can see where the plane looped over Utah.

Arizona, actually. Any idea what this "sniffing mission" was about? Pretty desolate area, they seem to be following the cliff edge of a canyon back and forth.

Are there any former uranium mining or milling sites in that area? Recently, there has been a lot of attention on contamination of the Navajo reservation due to these activities.

Alternatively, perhaps the plane was being used to prospect for uranium.

I can't find any useful information on the instrumentation of the plane. I haven't even found a photograph of it.

Gamma survey is certainly possibly, but I think they would fly a grid. It looks like most of the sniffing was done at 6kft. The papers I can find on gamma surveys use altitudes ranging from 300ft to 600ft.

As an aside, I found a gamma survey online years ago for the Kelbaker area south of the Mojave Desert Preserve. If memory serves me right, you take 40 south then go south on Kelbaker road. I brought my Geiger counter. The only hot spot I found was a pile of tailings around 100uR/hr. Plenty to set off the box.

Whatever it was... the flight seems to have made several low level passes up and down Hurricane cliffs.






I think you nailed it... dunno what the mines were for, they are at about 36°45'5.71"N - 113°13'38.16"W.



It's either that or they were monitoring CO2 emissions from the cattle at the nearby ranches. Tax time ya know.

[edit on 8-11-2009 by RoofMonkey]

Just an FYI, even though it looks like the plane didn't go directly over the mines, the internet tracking of aircraft isn't all that accurate. The altitude reporting seems to be accurate.

I found a report from the remote sensing lab on a gamma survey they did over vegas.
vegas gamma survey

They found a few hot spots and linked them to medical facilities.