Using Radio Waves to Detect Explosives

deadmantyping writes "A Japanese research group published a paper describing a method to detect explosives in luggage using radio waves. The method relies upon nitrogen nuclear quadrapole resonance (NQR) and is able to distinguish between different white powders, whereas currently used x-ray technology is not."

White powders?

[Some_Llama]

SO will it detect Cocaine, herion, anthrax, flour? What if I add some gun powder to my Coke?

Re:Interesting idea, but one caveat I perceve...

[Dr. Eggman]

What if a crazy man just straps some bombs on, walks up to the security checkpoint and sets himself off? There's no security check to protect the first security check. Better add one.

...and recurse.

Re:Interesting idea, but one caveat I perceve...

[CosmeticLobotamy]

what happens if the crazy terrorist (er.. freedom fighter) decides to make a trigger which works off of radio waves (or whatever particular radio wave) said name future machine may use?

Given the availability of both clocks and button, it seems unlikely to come up often.

Explosives and radio waves...

[Roskolnikov]

I remember hearing warnings about having transmitters near my explosives, something about accidentally triggering professional grade gear;
Exposing high strength radio waves to homemade devices might result in detection by detonation.......

That's nice

[overshoot]

I wonder how it is at distinguishing between common metallic solids and thermite?

A little oxidized iron, a little aluminum powder, a tiny amount of binder, press, and you have the makings of some attractive plaques or statuary. A bit of magnesium wire and a battery and you have everything you need to start a large mass of aluminum burning. Spectacularly.

Good thing none of the Bad Guys have the brains of a flatworm. Or at least, that's what our whole air travel security strategy assumes.

Not all explosives contain nitrogen

[dsci]

And not all nitrogen containing explosives are white powders. :)

much simpler method

[AlgorithMan]

I have a much simpler method: if america doesn't like country X it follows that X has explosives...

Re:So, no more taking shoes off?

[bram]

Last time I took Sri Lankan from EU to CMB. I'm not allowed to have my swiss army knife in the cabin so I put it in my cargo luggage.
When we got our meal it came with nice metal cutlery.

On arrival I put the metal meal knife in my hand luggage and walk out of the airport.
One month later I go back to EU wondering what security would tell me checking in with one of their own knifes.

Nobody saw anything, now it's laying somewhere here around the house.

So much for regulations and security.

All that security is for...

[JCOTTON]

guarding the planes. To hell with the people on the ground. Why do you think that security is set up in the MIDDLE of the airport? What if a bad guy wanted to kill people in the terminal? Wide open. That is why in Israel, the security is at the front gate., not the flight gate.

Thermite in luggage probably won't work

[Harmonious Botch]

Luggage probably does not burn very well. The suitcase and its contents are mostly fabric / leather / plastic of some type. ( think about what you packed last time... ) Most clothing has passed some kind of won't-sustain-combustion test, and that in the presence of lots of oxygen at or near sea level. Leather won't sustain a fire on its own. Plastics, who knows? But few are highly exothermic.
And add to that the fact that there is not a whole lot of air available in the luggage container - it's mostly luggage. Even if there is enough fuel to sustain a low-temp fire, it soon suffocates itself. The only jet that has crashed in the last few decades due to a cargo fire was because there was an oxygen tank in the luggage.

Also, according to federal law, all luggage compartments on commercial airliners are required to have fire-resistant walls.