Muon Tomography for Detection of Dynamic Border Tunnels
Published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2023
Using muon tomography to detect tunnels has been suggested and studied with promising results. This work revisits the idea in the context of border tunnels with applications to drug interdiction and military intrusions. Unlike previous studies, this work considers the detection of border tunnels as they are being built with the goal of detecting tunnels before they cross the border. An updated physics model and numerical analysis is presented and applied to the problem with the following results. For a single borehole the optimal detector depth is 40–60 m with a reach of almost 60 m for drug tunnels. A more useful configuration is an array of detectors spaced evenly along the border. This picket fence arrangement has been suggested but not studied. With detectors spaced at 130 m separation this work shows that drug tunnels could be detected 18 days before crossing the border with only 10% variation in detection time. Relaxing the uniformity requirement allows the separation to increase to 300 m. For larger, military tunnels the distance between the detectors could be increased further to 450 m.
Recommended citation: Gebhart, L., & Snowden-Ifft, D. (2023). " Muon tomography for detection of dynamic border tunnels." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment.
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