Since 9/11, world events have focused attention on the Trojan Horse nuclear threat.  This has been an unpublicized concern by military experts since the early years of the Cold War.  All nations are vulnerable to clandestine asymmetric attack using improvised atomic bombs.  Such bombs can be secreted and remotely detonated in any population center or critical industrial facility in the world by a few individuals with the right expertise, shipping contacts, and access to small quantities of fissile material.  To be specific, 60-kg of U235 or a much smaller quantity of plutonium is sufficient to produce a bomb equivalent to the World War II Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

 We have worked with Paceco Corp., Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC) to develop a concept for an Active Scanning System for marine cargo containers and vehicles.  This system uses external energetic X-rays to force fissile materials to reveal themselves with telltale signature emissions that are induced by the photon bombardment.  The facility can be adapted to operate in the backlands of an operating container terminal or at border crossings and airport exit stations to inspect trucks and autos.

 Working with ICx Radiation, KAM Engineering Israel, and Motorola Israel we have also developed a mobile Passive Scanning System that uses spectroscopic detectors.  This mobile radiation detection system can be mounted on Rubber Tired Gantry Cranes (RTG’s) or on trucks to detect and identify several types of radioactive materials.