Year
2001
Abstract
Increased concern over the use of explosives by terrorists worldwide continues to drive the development of commercially available equipment for explosives detection. In the area of trace chemical detection, a number of different systems are currently available, based on technologies such as ion mobility spectrometry, chemiluminescence, and electron capture detection. These systems can generally be placed into one of three categories depending on size, portability, and function: personnel portals, bench-top units, and hand-portable (or hand-held) systems. Since 1995, personnel at Sandia National Laboratories have undertaken systematic testing and evaluation of commercial trace detection systems for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Safeguards and Security, with the purpose of providing detailed test reports on system capabilities and performance to DOE sites. In this paper, we discuss these on-going laboratory evaluations in detail. Evaluations are conducted according to a standard test protocol, which emphasizes performance parameters such as limits of detection, probabilities of detection, throughput rate, and false alarm rate. Such performance evaluations, along with cost and more subjective factors such as ease of use, help potential users to determine the most appropriate systems for a given detection application.