Re: x-ray scanners

[MCNAUGHT@lanl.gov (Mike McNaughton)]

>Does the low level scanner produced by Nicolet Imaging Systems of San Diego
>produce a skin entrance dose of a few microrem as claimed or is the average
>dose higher.

The Nicolet system seems to be based on the ideas by Georges Charpak of
CERN, developed by the Russian Budker Institute for Nuclear Research, using
multi-wire proportional detectors (for which Charpak won the Nobel prize).
The only reference I have is an article entitled "Minidose x rays" in the
March 1997 issue of CERN Courier. (CERN is the European Center for Nuclear
Reasearch.) 

This article says the whole body dose for a complete scan is 40 mrem; the
advantage is the large amount of information from one scan, which is
comparable many x-ray pictures. CERN Courier indicates that this is the a
world-class, state-of-the-art system, so the question is: can Nicolet do
10,000 times better? 

"Shlala gashle" (Zulu greeting meaning "stay safe") mike