New sensors detects nuclear threats before they cross our borders
28 replies, posted
[release][img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/drivethru2.jpg[/img]
Smuggling a nuclear weapon into the U.S. is distressingly simple—all someone needs is a truck full of watermelons. Regulations prohibit using high-power x-rays on perishables, and Geiger counters don’t beep alerts because the juicy fruit absorbs radiation. But a new drive-through detector takes advantage of cosmic rays to locate any nuclear material, no matter how cleverly hidden.
Only a few percent of the 15 million or so cargo containers that enter the country every year are screened for nukes, a number that Congress mandates must be 100 percent by 2012. That benchmark is impractical using today’s tech, however. Standard detectors can miss nuclear material hidden behind lead or steel, and naturally radioactive cargo such as kitty litter gives false positives, requiring a labor-intensive hand-search.'
A new detector from Decision Sciences, a security company in California, sees through anything and can scan a semi in less than a minute. It tracks muons, cosmic particles constantly bombarding Earth. Muons penetrate everything but are deflected more by heavy atoms such as uranium and plutonium. The detector tracks these deflections.
The company finished lab tests this spring and is now building detectors to deploy at several ports in the next year. “As long as it works quickly enough, it should fit the bill,” says Robert Dynes, a physicist at the University of California at San Diego who reviewed radiation detectors for Homeland Security. Tests indicate that the device should be speedy on real cargo, says Decision Sciences’s chief technology officer, Allan Wegner. And it’s nearly foolproof. Wegner can’t go into detail about its weaknesses (for obvious reasons), but he assures us that kitty litter and watermelons will no longer threaten national security.
[b][i]How It Works[/i][/b]
[b]1)[/b] As muons come from the sky, they pass through the top detector, the truck and the bottom detector. The muons create ionization trails in the scanner's gas-filled detector tubes, which sensors record.
[b]2)[/b] Heavy atoms, such as uranium and plutonium, deflect muons more than lighter ones do. If the angles of muons' entrance and exit paths vary by a wide magin, nuclear material could be present.
[b]3)[/b] The detector also senses gamma radiation, which the computer combines with muon data to build a 3D view of suspicious muon-scattering objects, alerting customs agents exactly where to search.[/release]
[b]SAUSAGE:[/b] [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-07/drive-thru-detection[/url]
we so hi tech bitchez
Physics, bitches.
[editline]07:47PM[/editline]
Wait, cat litter is radioactive?
Lots of shit is radioactive.
[img]http://images.pictureshunt.com/pics/f/fruits_bananas-2824.jpg[/img]
Potassium-40 up in this bitch
This is awesome and I feel safer because of it :patriot:
[QUOTE=Aurora93;24242205]Lot of shit is radioactive.
Potassium-40 up in this bitch[/QUOTE]
I knew about bananas being radioactive.
[editline]07:55PM[/editline]
I mean, everything has a little bit of radioactivity. And then there's background radiation.
Why is optimus prime smuggling nuclear shit D:
[QUOTE=privatesmily;24242361]Why is optimus prime smuggling nuclear shit D:[/QUOTE]
Optimus Prime [b]IS[/b] nuclear shit.
Optimus Jihad is his new name
drop watermelons on chernobyl
[quote]Smuggling a nuclear weapon into the U.S. is distressingly simple—all someone needs is a truck full of watermelons. Regulations prohibit using high-power x-rays on perishables, and Geiger counters don’t beep alerts because the juicy fruit absorbs radiation. [/quote]
Hmmm, quite useful information there.
[QUOTE=Tools;24242513]Hmmm, quite useful information there.[/QUOTE]
Yea seriously, people bitch at WL for endangering lives but here's an article that directly tells terrorists how to get nukes in :colbert:
is that optimus prime smuggling nuclear weapons?
[IMG]http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/real-peterbilt-optimus-prime.jpg[/IMG]
At first I was like "Gotta love science."
Then I was all like "HOLY SHIT OPTIMUS PRIME!"
[QUOTE=Xen Tricks;24242561]Yea seriously, people bitch at WL for endangering lives but here's an article that directly tells terrorists how to get nukes in :colbert:[/QUOTE]
It's not like anyone can't put two and two together with watermelons.
If someone is going to smuggle that in, they would do as much research possible on how.
All you need to look up is basically what can absorb radiation + what does not get scanned and cross reference them.
[QUOTE=Xen Tricks;24242561]Yea seriously, people bitch at WL for endangering lives but here's an article that directly tells terrorists how to get nukes in :colbert:[/QUOTE]
Really? Do you think a group competent enough to do what no other rogue organization has ever accomplished (obtain a nuclear weapon), and then somehow transport it to the United States would have their plot foiled because they couldn't figure out something like this?
If the article posted guard rotations and weaknesses in security fences, etc. that would be a different story.
[QUOTE=Regulas021;24242902]Really? Do you think a group competent enough to do what no other rogue organization has ever accomplished (obtain a nuclear weapon), and then somehow transport it to the United States would have their plot foiled because they couldn't figure out something like this?
If the article posted guard rotations and weaknesses in security fences, etc. that would be a different story.[/QUOTE]
Even security fences and guard rotations could be scouted out if they sent a man ahead to look at what will be looked through.
And on top of that, I'm sure they would send "test" crates through, just to practice the routine of going through customs.
God it was a joke, don't start the whole "argument" thing over it
you'd think the gov't would keep this to themselves.
[QUOTE=Jessesmith1;24243013]you'd think the gov't would keep this to themselves.[/QUOTE]
Would rather scare off people from thinking of trying it.
optimus prime you silly goose you!
That's genius.
That truck looks so bad ass
What about private planes?
Should we also scan cargo ships?
Are we going to set up checkpoints at state boarders?
I mean if we're going to be paranoid, let's go all out.
Maybe if America wasn't the world police, they wouldn't have to do this.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;24242225]This is awesome and I feel safer because of it :patriot:[/QUOTE]
Without even impeding on our constitutional rights even.
...
...Fuck I'm in bizarro world again aren't I?
[editline]09:25PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Extroll;24251362]What about private planes?
Should we also scan cargo ships?
Are we going to set up checkpoints at state boarders?
I mean if we're going to be paranoid, let's go all out.[/QUOTE]
Cargo ships are filled with cargo containers.
Which are loaded onto trucks as they exit the port. Which are scanned.
Not very much is flown in. And stuff that is doesn't tend to be in non-descript cargo containers and can be X-rayed.
Watermelons have rights too, you know.
Drive car filled with nuke and watermelons through mexico border into USA.
Only place with this high tech thing is major cities.
Drive past the guard anyways and blow it up.
like they will inspect every watermelon truck.
genius
I own a border now?
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