The Next Step
by Jodi Richards, Associate Editor
Firm seeks to determine chemical make-up through advanced technology
Dr. Bogdan Maglich, CEO, chairman, and chief scientific officer of HiEnergy Technologies, Inc., an Irvine, CA-based technology research firm founded in 1995, has developed a system he says will work hand-in-hand with checked baggage machines already in use at the nation's airports. Recently, he spoke with AIRPORT BUSINESS to explain the technology. Following is an edited transcript.
AIRPORT BUSINESS: What is the product your company is developing?
Dr. Bogdan Maglich: First, it is little known to the general public that
x-ray machines, the EDS (explosives detection systems) at the airports
cannot detect explosives. They are using x-rays, and x-rays are intrinsically
chemically blind. They are unable to tell what the chemical composition
is. On the other hand, x-rays are extremely useful in determining the
shape and density of an object. But once this is established, the operator
has to decide that the object is suspicious and that it may contain explosives.
So effectively, in the jargon of the U.S. military, the x-ray machines
at the airports are not explosive detection systems. They are anomaly
detectors. They detect something that is unusual, and then the second
stage is to determine whether or not it is a dangerous substance. So the
military divides the process of detecting explosives into anomaly detection
and confirmation sensors.
Confirmation sensor is something - it did not exist until we came onto
the scene - that chemically determines the contents of the hidden object.
We can look at it this way, x-rays are chemically blind, but they are
capable of determining the position of suspicious objects. And as a result
there are a lot of false alarms. There are so many objects that look suspicious,
that suitcases have to be opened only to conclude that they are not. The
false alarm rate is anywhere between 8 percent and 40 percent for the
current x-ray machines.
Maglich
The false alarm rate
is therefore the biggest problem, and I'm talking about only checked luggage.
The situation is much easier with small luggage. But for the large, checked
luggage, the false alarm rate is very high, so secondary inspection is
needed. And this is where we came in with our technology that is capable
of telling the chemical composition through the material, through a suitcase.
We call it the false alarm eliminator. It is capable of deciphering the
chemical formula of an object through steel or a suitcase.
The decision time is the crucial factor. For the scanning of checked baggage,
the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) prescribes eight seconds
per suitcase. In practice, that is never met.
Now if we want to work online with the same system, we would also have
to have an eight-second system, and we have this in the process of development,
called the SuperSenzor. [But] it's not ready for airports. In the meanwhile,
we have developed a much cheaper system, which we're developing as a stepping
stone toward the SuperSenzor. We call it the MiniSenzor. The difference
between [the two] is that the SuperSenzor is directional. It points the
neutrons like a flashlight and can point at a given area of the suitcase
where the suspicious object is.
The MiniSenzor is much cheaper and it does not have directionality, but
by doing many tests for two years, we have succeeded in getting [detection
time] down from 20 minutes to ten seconds. And now several x-ray companies
are interested in having a false alarm eliminated by something that is
not as expensive as the x-ray system. X-ray systems are in the million-dollar
range. Our SuperSenzor would be in the $600,000-700,000 range. But the
MiniSenzor is $200,000.
It takes one minute to detect the minimal amount of explosive used in
bombs. With the SuperSenzor it takes about six seconds, so it would be
in line with the TSA regulations.
We are now working on the MiniSenzor to operate in tandem with existing
x-ray detectors as a false alarm eliminator.
AB: How does the technology work?
BM: Think of radar. You send radar waves toward an airplane, and they
bounce back to you and it tells you the location and the size of the plane.
Now we are sending one type of radiation in the direction of the object
investigated, and, like in the case of radar, back comes the signal, but
this is not the same type of radiation. It's more sophisticated than radar.
Radar, the microwaves go toward the airplane; microwaves are bounced and
come back.
Here we send fast neutrons toward the object, the neutrons cause explosives
to generate gamma rays which come back. So neutrons go in one direction,
gamma rays come back. And from analysis of these gamma rays, we can determine
the chemical formula of what the neutrons hit.
Neutrons can go through steel. Neutrons actually go through steel like
through butter. They don't know it's there. So luckily, therefore, it
can go through various bodies, and gamma rays are also easy penetrating
bodies, although they are somewhat absorbed. The key issue is that neutrons
can go through any body, they collide, say with explosives, explosives
generate gamma rays, these gamma rays come back.
Each chemical element has different wavelengths. So we analyze the wavelengths
of the bounced back gamma rays. This we call spectrum. The wavelength
of the gamma rays will tell you exactly what the element is. Now it is
easier said than done because there are so many wavelengths. They are
so intermingled, they also come on top of one another.
AB: Where are you in the process of gaining approval for use of your
product in airports?
BM: The TSA came here recently and gave us blind tests. There were various
cans that looked exactly alike, but one had explosives, one had peanut
butter, and one had various things. And TSA, when they saw that our machine,
when they put peanut butter [through] and it said 'not an explosive,'
they were so happy they stopped and said we don't need tests any longer.
We are now in the process of negotiating a Cooperative Research and Development
Agreement (CRADA) with the TSA.
