Waste Crate and Container Imaging Using the Vehicle and cargo Inspection System

Category: Characterization > Monitors > Radiation Monitors
Reference # : OST/TMS No 2912, DOE/EM-0543 Model No :

The Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS) is a highly penetrating gamma ray imaging system that provides a means to non-invasively image crate contents prior to crate disassembly. The VACIS unit uses a 1.6 Curie collimated source (Cesium-137) aimed at a linear detector to create an image as the unit passes by the crate. In the demonstrated mobile unit, the source and detector were mounted on a boom truck. As the crate passed between the source and detector, a near real-time composite image of the contents was constructed from the linear image of the VACIS unit's on board computer and recorded on disk

Benefits

• Provides non-invasive images of large crates • Capable of scanning many crates per hour • Guides opening of contaminated contents • Provides inventory reconciliation

Limitations

The only shortcoming is the technology’s inability to clearly characterize homogeneous waste-type contents of packages. Since it was designed for trucks, the fact that the system cannot radiograph within 2 feet of the ground is not a problem. However, for DOE’s containerized waste problem the ability to characterize a container standing on the ground would avoid the handling necessary to get the packages on to a truck or frame.

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Pictures

	Mobile VACIS™ Unit
	VACIS™ Unit at the LANL Demonstration Site

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