Nowhere for Nukes to Hide
Kirt's Cogitations™ #79

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Nowhere for Nukes to Hide

Thanks to scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the effort to detect hidden rogue nukes attempting to be smuggled into the country is going to made be a lot easier - and cheaper. Using sensitive passive detector arrays, the muons that are a secondary decay byproduct of abundant cosmic rays can indicate the presence of very dense materials like uranium, plutonium and lead shielding containers. These muons pass right through less dense materials, but scatter upon encountering denser matter. Concealing vessels such as steel shipping crates, entire trucks and persons can be scanned in a matter of seconds as they pass slowly through detector arrays. Testing has confirmed that both fission bombs and "dirty" nukes (low grade radiological material wrapped around conventional explosives) are easily revealed even when painstakingly hidden. So, no thanks to the governments and citizens who appease and encourage terrorists, our world will soon be a little safer.