Nuclear Methods in Landmine Detection

The Problem: Landmines The Solution: The Physics:

•The detector uses both thermal and fast
•There are nearly 50 million unexploded
Nuclear LMD neutrons to cause gamma ray emissions from
landmines in 60 countries around the world. How it Works: N, O, and H.
•These landmines cause approximately 10,000 •All explosives have •A gamma ray spectrometer can then be
deaths per year. used to determine if the concentrations of
high concentrations
•Large portions N and O are high.
of both N and O.
of land go unused •By shooting neutrons
due to fear of mines. •The neutrons can be
into the soil concentrations of N, O, and H can
be determined. produced by either D-T
Modern Mines: •If concentrations of N and O are high in a fusion or radioisotopes.
•Modern mines can be constructed with particular area, there is likely an explosive.
plastics and composites.
•The low metal content
Other Applications:
of mines makes Airport Security
detection extremely
•The same technology used in nuclear LMD
difficult. can also be used to scan luggage in airports
•This technology will allow faster and far
A plastic mine
more accurate scanning of luggage.
Current Detection Methods: Future Detectors:
•Metal Detectors •… will likely be robotic and combine nuclear
•Ground Penetrating detection techniques with GPR and GPS.
Radar (GPR) •This combination will allow for extreme
accuracy and speed with minimal false alarms.
•Probing
•All the methods above can The Search
be extremely dangerous. Airport luggage scanner