Search

At U.S. ports and border crossings, agents are increasingly using X-ray surveillance of shipping containers and trucks to foil attempts to smuggle nuclear weapons or radioactive materials into the country. A new study indicates that radiation from the heavens may provide a way to detect such threatening cargoes without requiring potentially dangerous X-ray sources. Konstantin N. Borozdin of Los Alamos, New Mexico National Laboratory and his coworkers have demonstrated in a laboratory experiment that they can use the relentless rain of cosmic rays to detect chunks of heavy metal. The presence of such weighty metals in a vehicle could tip off authorities that dangerous nuclear contraband is onboard. Many radioactive elements-particularly the uranium and plutonium used in nuclear weapons-are among the heaviest elements.The Los Alamos researchers report that in a minute they can acquire telling images of, say, uranium surrounded by much lighter materials. That sounds promising, but if the contraband materials were nestled among steel or other weighty materials, the technique would probably take too much time to be practical, says physicist Simon P. Swordy of the University of Chicago.

Announces that an X-ray machine at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico considered the comeback of fusion-energy research has burned past the two-million-degree mark. Comments from Donald L. Cook, Sandia's pulsed-power program leader about the machine known as Z.