Muon Detector Could Thwart Nuclear Smugglers

Ben Sullivan writes "Cosmic rays that bombard Earth could help catch smugglers trying to bring nuclear weapons into the U.S. Los Alamos scientists say they've developed a detector that can see through lead or other heavy shielding in truck trailers or cargo containers to detect uranium, plutonium or other n-bomb materials. Their technique, muon radiography, is reportedly far more sensitive than x-rays, with none of the radiation hazards of x-ray or gamma-ray detectors now used at border crossings. From Science Blog."

Comments

Re:Safety

[ecotax]

Regardless of how harmful these muons are when passing through your body, there is certainly no *added* harm in this detection method, because the muons used are the ones from space that has passed through you anyhow.