3 ms·

I wonder if being exposed to the (gamma) radiation they scan some of these packages with is a consideration.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
Maybe, I heard from Nick Fury that low levels of gamma radiation can be harmful.
rwmj 5y ago
Apparently the box which Carlos Ghosn[1] travelled inside couldn't be X-rayed because it was too large. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn#Flight_from_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn#Flight_from_Japan
hotpotamus 5y ago
Where would they scan packages with gamma? That seems too high energy for any imaging, but it's not something I'm super knowledgeable about.
- LorenPechtel 5y ago
  Not only that, but these days "gamma" refers to nuclear sources, "x-ray" refers to electron sources--there is no actual dividing line. Thus a gamma device can't be turned on and off, if it's got much energy you need an awful lot of shielding. I suspect they're talking about scanning *for* gamma radiation, not *with* gamma radiation. As in someone smuggling nuclear materials. (Note, however, that when you're scanning people it's another matter--when you find someone that trips the geiger counter it's probably medical, not nefarious.)
  - hotpotamus 5y ago
    Yep, I'm aware of the distinction that makes an EM wave gamma radiation, though I've heard the terms hard and soft X-rays which makes me think X-rays in gamma territory - it's all pretty exotic to me. I'm just not sure I've heard of imaging with gamma outside of orbital observatories - gotta be tricky when the wave you're trying to image can penetrate so much. But your medical comment got a laugh out of me because it reminded me when my high school physics teacher came in and held a geiger counter up to himself and it went nuts - turned out he'd just had some sort of scan with radio contrast.
    - LorenPechtel 5y ago
      My wife set off a gamma detector in the Shanghai/Pudong airport--heart scan. Fortunately, their security isn't insane, it was resolved actually too easily for my taste. (No effort was made to determine if she was hot as opposed to carrying something hot.) Here they have simply thrown people in prison when the radiation detector went off--100% of who were hot for medical reasons. Notably, we had passed through two US airports at 4x and 8x the radioactivity, didn't set off any alarms. Either there weren't detectors, or they were capable of filtering out alarms at that energy level (Tc-99m isn't useful for a bad guy, a detection is always medical.) I find the latter very unlikely when scanning a large area.
- trwhite 5y ago
  Me neither actually. I had only this vague recollection from high school Physics that they used gamma to scan shipping containers (but this was 10 years ago).

Maybe, I heard from Nick Fury that low levels of gamma radiation can be harmful.

rwmj 5y ago

Apparently the box which Carlos Ghosn[1] travelled inside couldn't be X-rayed because it was too large. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn#Flight_from_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn#Flight_from_Japan

hotpotamus 5y ago

Where would they scan packages with gamma? That seems too high energy for any imaging, but it's not something I'm super knowledgeable about.

LorenPechtel 5y ago
Not only that, but these days "gamma" refers to nuclear sources, "x-ray" refers to electron sources--there is no actual dividing line. Thus a gamma device can't be turned on and off, if it's got much energy you need an awful lot of shielding. I suspect they're talking about scanning *for* gamma radiation, not *with* gamma radiation. As in someone smuggling nuclear materials. (Note, however, that when you're scanning people it's another matter--when you find someone that trips the geiger counter it's probably medical, not nefarious.)
- hotpotamus 5y ago
  Yep, I'm aware of the distinction that makes an EM wave gamma radiation, though I've heard the terms hard and soft X-rays which makes me think X-rays in gamma territory - it's all pretty exotic to me. I'm just not sure I've heard of imaging with gamma outside of orbital observatories - gotta be tricky when the wave you're trying to image can penetrate so much. But your medical comment got a laugh out of me because it reminded me when my high school physics teacher came in and held a geiger counter up to himself and it went nuts - turned out he'd just had some sort of scan with radio contrast.
  - LorenPechtel 5y ago
    My wife set off a gamma detector in the Shanghai/Pudong airport--heart scan. Fortunately, their security isn't insane, it was resolved actually too easily for my taste. (No effort was made to determine if she was hot as opposed to carrying something hot.) Here they have simply thrown people in prison when the radiation detector went off--100% of who were hot for medical reasons. Notably, we had passed through two US airports at 4x and 8x the radioactivity, didn't set off any alarms. Either there weren't detectors, or they were capable of filtering out alarms at that energy level (Tc-99m isn't useful for a bad guy, a detection is always medical.) I find the latter very unlikely when scanning a large area.
trwhite 5y ago
Me neither actually. I had only this vague recollection from high school Physics that they used gamma to scan shipping containers (but this was 10 years ago).