Nuclear detectionHighly portable X-ray imaging system developed

Los Alamos National Laboratory and Tribogenics, the specialist in X-ray solutions, have partnered to create a lightweight, compact, low-cost X-ray system that uses the MiniMAX (Miniature, Mobile, Agile, X-ray) camera to provide real-time inspection of sealed containers and facilities. The technology was featured at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) International Conference on Nuclear Security: Enhancing Global Efforts, held 1-5 July in Vienna, Austria.

“Cost and portability are the major barriers to expanding the use of X-ray imaging,” said Scott Watson of Los Alamos’s Nuclear Engineering and Nonproliferation Division. “We designed MiniMAX to demonstrate that such a system will open up new applications in security inspection, field medicine, specimen radiography and industrial inspection.”

A Los Alamos Lab release reportsthat Los Alamos has developed MiniMAX as an alternative to the large, expensive, and fixed facilities presently required for security inspections using X-ray imaging. The complete MiniMAX portable radiography system weighs less than five pounds, compared to much larger and heavier systems currently available.

Los Alamos physicists demonstrated MiniMAX using a conventional X-ray source, a radioisotopic source, and a prototype source from Tribogenics operating at 90 keV. The Los Alamos team used the Tribogenics source to produce an X-ray image of a hand-held calculator.

“We were delighted when Los Alamos approached us to explore a partnership,” said Carlos Camara, chief scientist at Tribogenics. “This is exactly the type of breakthrough, portable application we envision for our disruptive X-ray technology.”