Muon Detector Could Thwart Nuclear Smugglers

Posted by Hemos on Monday March 7, 2005 @12:18AM from the interesting-applicatons dept.

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."

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Hope it performs better... by 3waygeek · 2005-03-07 00:28 · Score: 4, Interesting

than what these guys used.
1. Re:Hope it performs better... by DustMagnet · 2005-03-07 06:09 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  False alarms are a huge problem with any detection system. I had a coworker stopped while entering the U.S. because they detected explosive residue. He'd been working with explosives for months. The residue level was so high they couldn't get the machine clean again. It kept detecting explosives without any sample. It cost a lot of people a lot of time to verify that he was safe.
  
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  'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!