Utilizing Advances in Industrial Dual Beam X-Ray Scanners to Create New Capabilities in Humanitarian Demining and Explosive Detection

Humanitarian de-mining requires 100% detection and removal of landmines to enable safe use of a region. Progress in removing approximately 50 million landmines spread throughout over 70 counties is not fast enough. The hope is that non-invasive radiation-based detection technologies will yield radical better approaches to this problem. Improved sensitivity of the x-rays technologies in analyzing compositions of materials is occurring in industry. More directly dual energy x-ray absorption (DEXA) systems link the effective atomic number to composition change while maintaining high throughputs in often demanding operational environments. This report discusses the field trials of a DEXA scanner and the potential to transfer the trial findings to improved mine detection. The scanner reported on is the Smiths Eagle FA 720 'Bulk' a new version of which is just being released in the USA. It is in terms of the new industrial capability that a radical new capability may be possible in mine detection. This report examines in what way such new capability may be implemented. (author)