The high current vacuum insulated Tandem accelerator, VITA, can deliver more than 10 mA of protons or deuterons to custom high power targets to produce intense beams of neutrons and gamma rays that are needed for security and medical applications.

iCam detects chemical explosives and special nuclear materials
The BTG cargo inspection system is based on a high current ion accelerator system to produce very high flux of photons and neutrons as penetrating interrogation beams. The detector system employs a directional sensitive spectroscopic gamma detector that serves as a photon camera. We named the system iCam for INSPECTION CAMERA. The VITA, developed in collaboration with the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and BTG, provides the accelerator that generates and transports the high current ion beam to custom high power targets to produce the high energy penetrating radiation.

The intense high energy photon and neutron beams produced by the VITA can penetrate shipping containers, trucks and trains to rapidly and unambiguously detect the presence of special nuclear materials or chemical explosives.


The iCam system unambiguously identifies chemical elements and special nuclear materials inside containers, trucks, trains and other vehicles.

Existing x-ray scanning methods have serious limitations. X-ray images show only the effective density and amounts of material along particular straight paths through a container. They are slow and they demand intelligent trained personnel to identify dangerous contents.

iCam is a scanning system. It does not require interpretation of an image. The technology directly and unambiguously identifies explosives, special nuclear materials and other chemically distinct substances. iCam emits a controlled, tightly focused beam of penetrating radiation that can see inside a sealed container. The radiation dose to objects inside is negligible. If chemical explosives or special nuclear materials are present, they produce a signature that is recognized by sensitive electronic detectors and an alert signal is sent to an appropriate responder.

To make the system work requires a relatively low energy, high current ion beam to produce the penetrating radiation that together with appropriate sensors, signals the presence of specific materials. Ion sources and accelerators that can produce the high current beam with the required energy spectrum were not available in the 1990s. The new ion source and accelerator designed by scientists at BTG and the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics now does the job.



In addition to Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, U.S. collaborators are:

• U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
• Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWC)
• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Brookhaven National Laboratory