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Explosive Detection:
a trace of a vapour?
Image above: Dinabol bought over-the-counter in Bolivia by tourist, Nick Geyman, and posted on his travel blog.
Why has explosive detection by traces and vapours never become part of
the standard screening process in quite the same way that metal detection
has? Is it just about money or more about false alarm rates? Or perhaps
it's about detection capability or inability? Andy Oppenheimer looks at the
emerging systems that can identify the picograms of explosive materials
and evaluates their progress in the airport security marketplace.
ince the so-called ‘liquid spends more on homeland security than hydrogen peroxide and acetone and are
S
explosives plot’ of August any other, is funding some R&D efforts. difficult to detect by conventional mass
2006, the demand for In 2010, the U.S. spectroscopy market spectrometry methods. Common items
systems capable of is expected to be $5.2 billion, increasing found in luggage, such as plastics or
providing early warning of an at an average annual growth rate of 8%, chocolate, can trigger alarms. A
explosive attack has surged with the fastest growing sectors being combination of automated CT
to an all-time high. The trend has grown mass spectrometry. Molecular (computerised tomography) machines, X-
for domestic and foreign terrorists to spectroscopy, which encompasses the ray, metal detectors and physical search
dabble in liquid and other homemade aforementioned miniature spectroscopy have been used to detect known
explosives (HME) – a small amount of sector, and that which consists of explosives but some technologies do not
which can be easily concealed and can infrared (IR), ultraviolet, visible, Raman, detect sheet explosives, liquids and
provide a big bang for a very small buck. nuclear, and electron spin resonance improvised materials, while current
Only a few grams of some homemade spectroscopy, will reach $1.7 billion at an imaging technologies do not detect all
explosives can breach an aircraft body. average growth rate of 7%. The Raman shapes and are very operator-dependent.
The 2006 plot and subsequent terrorist spectroscopy growth rate is expected to On top of which, the quantity of explosives
trials propelled the detection industry be close to 10%. and foreign materials being sought can
several stages forward in research and produce false alarms, such as
development (R&D). In an effort to The Story So Far nitroglycerine used for medical purposes.
respond to the momentous increase in The current IED threat defies a Authorities have long relied on sniffer
requirements for explosive monitoring completely technical solution to standard dogs as the olfactory ability of canines is
devices, private industry is gearing up to X-ray imaging. Current HMEs of choice - sensitive enough to detect trace
serve this expanding market. Some triacetone triperoxide TATP and HMTD - amounts of many compounds, but
governments, such as the US, which use common household items like several concerns have inhibited their
Aviationsecurityinternational August 2009 www.asi-mag.com 17
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