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Explosives...we might have a problem. This was made evident in the training. I won't say what was in the bags, but there were items that were improvised that weren't recognised radiologically. There are combined technical factors and pattern recognition issues that influence our ability to detect those items.
I can (with the proper resources) get a reasonably broad radiological database of small arms and ammunition together, but explosives are another matter. By rights, we have no business having anything to do with explosives at all, but the fact remains that we are the first to examine the contents of the bag (even though it is by imaging).
There is no provision of airport-style computer-assisted diagnostics at this point, but there have been some experiments with mobile CT scanners (mounted in trucks).
I don't know what the density range is of certain explosives or even if it is a worthwhile endeavour to try to plot Hounsfield units for them, especially since we would need a rapid automated analysis of the results.
I don't know diddly about imaging explosives and I suspect most radiographers fit in that category. I'll find out more about that later, but it isn't my focus at this point.
Good points, all, I do appreciate it!
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