GATWICK airport is to test an American machine that 'sniffs' out plastic explosive, such as that which destroyed Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. The machine will be operative in July, and the trial will last for about a year.
Britain and the US agreed in March last year to try out the machine at a British airport, when William Skinner, the US Secretary of State for Transportation, invited European countries to participate in a trial of the technology. Britain's Department of Transport, which is responsible for aircraft security, is paying Pounds sterling 36,000 to install the machine.
The detector was developed by the company Science Applications International in California. It employs a technique known as thermal neutron analysis. Neutrons bombard luggage as it passes through the machine. These stimulate emissions of gamma rays from atoms, in particular nitrogen, which make up the luggage. The machine records ...
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