Sedgefield’s Kromek secures £1.6 million deals to help fight global terror threat

A North East technology firm has secured two contract extensions worth £1.6 million to help counter nuclear terrorism.

Kromek says authorities across Europe and the US will continue using its D3S family of products – which can identify terrorist threats such as ‘dirty bombs’ – to foil extremists.

The company, based at NETPark, in Sedgefield, County Durham, has been awarded a £1 million extension from a European government-related company to provide integration of its D3S-related technologies.

Bosses say the customer is a company working with a European government to detect and protect against potential nuclear threats, with Kromek’s solutions used for wide-area threat monitoring.

The deal brings the total awarded by the customer during this financial year to £2.1 million.

In addition, the US Government’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, a component within the US Department of Homeland Security, has awarded Kromek a £600,000 extension contract to add further technical innovation capability to the D3S family of products.

Bosses say the enhancements will provide greater operational capability by improving user experience and add a specialised reporting function to generate further information for homeland security organisations.

Arnab Basu, Kromek chief executive, pictured left, said: “The D3S family of products is gaining increasing momentum globally, with sales in 18 countries, as governments continue to adopt innovative solutions for countering the threat of nuclear terrorism.

“We are also pleased to be receiving further orders from existing customers, which reflects the value that they gain from our solutions.

“With some of our multi-year trials approaching a successful conclusion, we look forward to additional product and system-level sales of this leading-edge solution in the future.”

Earlier this year, Kromek told North East Times it expects to recruit at least 20 staff over the next 18 months at its NETPark base, as it lays foundations for further market growth.

The move comes after the business, a Durham University spin-out, carried out a £21 million fundraising to enhance manufacturing work across its UK and US sites.