While X-rays have long been used to take radiographic images for inspection purposes, they were used mainly to outline the shapes of concealed objects. As these old methods were subjective and slow and revealed little information about what those objects were actually made of, only a small fraction of trans-border traffic was ever examined.
Recent national security initiatives are now targeting 100% inspection of border cargo at seaports, airports, and land crossings. The new objectives call for high throughputs and automated detection, the ability to locate concealed high Z materials, and demonstrate a greatly improved false-positive/false-negative rate. Additional capabilities may also include the ability to identify an object's specific elemental and isotopic composition, so as to reveal the presence of hidden explosives and drugs, or to discern between dangerous and benign isotopes. To achieve these goals many of the new inspection methods being realized, such as NRFI, require the use of IBA's industrial accelerators, modified to produce X-rays with very specific characteristics.
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The Rhodotron® is a recirculating accelerator where electrons gain energy by crossing a coaxial-shaped accelerating cavity several times.
