Authorities discover tunnels under the Southern U.S. border quite frequently. And they are usually described as a random discoveries even though there are underground detection techniques available.
The Israelis are just as secretive about their techniques. In Netanyahu hails ‘breakthrough technology’ in discovery of Gaza attack tunnel, they found a tunnel terrorists dug in an apparent attempt to use to attack Israelis. The tunnel finding techniques aren't disclosed. So we are left to wonder.
About a year ago I heard a Stardate podcast on NPR about how muons were used to map the interior of an earthquake and tsunami damaged nuclear reactor in Japan. Listen to that MP3 at this Stardate link. It's only a couple of minutes long.
Here's an article about that particular endeavor at Muons suggest location of fuel in unit 3. Excerpt:
Muons are high-energy subatomic particles that are created when cosmic rays enter Earth's upper atmosphere. These particles naturally and harmlessly strike the Earth's surface at a rate of some 10,000 muons per square meter per minute. Muon tracking devices detect and track these particles as they pass through objects. Subtle changes in the trajectory of the muons as they penetrate materials and change in direction correlate with material density. Nuclear materials such as uranium and plutonium are very dense and are therefore relatively easy to identify. The muon detection system uses the so-called permeation method to measure the muon data.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) installed a muon detection system on the first floor of unit 3's turbine building. Measurements were taken between May and September this year.
Tepco said analysis of muon examinations of the fuel debris shows that most of the fuel has melted and dropped from its original position within the core.
Anyway, a light bulb went off. Could these tiny cosmic things be harnessed to locate illicit smuggling tunnels into the U.S. from Mexico? Well, maybe.
At least one writer hypothesized about that nearly a decade ago. See High-Tech Border Patrol: 5 New Tricks to Find Smuggler Tunnels. Here's a thumbnail description of how that would work:
Cosmic Rays
How It's Done: Muons are subatomic particles created by cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere. The number of them detected underground varies with the mass above: If there's a tunnel, more muons are found.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is supposed to be a big fan of Uri Geller -- see details in Annie Jacobsen's book, "Phenomena" -- so for all we know, Uri Geller is using his divining rod to find those tunnels into Israel.
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