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If you build X-ray machines, they will come.

A group of top U.S. graduate students visited two Blount County facilities Friday to see how they are using advanced X-ray and neutron sciences.

Students were a part of the National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering that is held every summer for two weeks. The Department of Energy provides funding for the program, which is in its 11th year.

The program was created to address a need that DOE officials had seen developing. Few education courses were preparing young researchers to effectively use the sophisticated instruments available at the large facilities producing X-rays and neutrons, according to Argonne National Laboratory's Web site.

The National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering is overseen by Argonne National Laboratory's Division of Educational Programs, Advanced Photon Source, and Materials Science Division and Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Neutron Scattering Science Division.

During the program's two weeks, researchers from academia, industry, and national laboratories will speak to students about advanced scattering theory and place an emphasis on both general theory and practical application.

Students will also have to conduct four short experiments at both national laboratories that will provide them with hands-on experience for using neutron and synchrotron sources.

Smiths Detection

The program's 61 students visited Blount County technology centers on Friday afternoon. Thirty-one students went to Smiths Detection and 30 went to ALCOA Inc.

Smiths Detection offers integrated security solutions based on trace detection equipment, X-ray screening systems and other proven and developing technologies.

Smiths Detection is one of five operating divisions of Smiths Group, a global technology company, listed on the London Stock Exchange that serves the detection, health care and specialty engineering markets. Smiths Group employs 22,000 people and has facilities in 50 countries.

Smiths Detection's manufacturing facilities in Alcoa, located at 3202 Regal Drive in the industrial park behind West Chevrolet, produce X-ray screening systems for cargo and product inspections.

After a brief introduction from Terry Woolford, vice president of sales and marketing, students were taken on a tour of the manufacturing floor. The floor is organized in a horseshoe with inside and outside lanes so work can be conducted in two lines simultaneously, Woolford said. The facility produces about six or seven different models of product inspection units, he said.

Smiths Detection's units inspect, detect, identify and verify food and product safety for the meat, beverage, pharmaceutical and packaging industries. Program software working with X-ray technologies can conduct:

— Raw material inspections;

— Ingredient identifications;

— Content verifications;

— Contamination checks;

— Fat analysis;

— Fill-level checks;

— Weight checks;

— Shape checks.

After touring the floor, students split up into three groups where they learned about X-ray product management, X-ray product inspection applications and border/port security.

Students appeared to be most interested in the company's line of security products. Tim Norton, director of cargo operations, walked students through a HCVG scanner, which can be used for security inspections at ports, airports, and border points. The HCVG scanners are used to inspect trucks, containers, and other vehicles in order to seize contraband goods, weapons, explosives and drugs.

Full-size units are the approximate size of a car wash and have 2-foot thick concrete walls, Norton said. Trucks, containers, and other vehicles are scanned within these walls. The HCVG's high energy X-ray scanner can penetrate 15-inches of steel, and scans can be completed in less than two minutes, Norton said.

Students also got to see the HCVM, which is a high energy mobile X-ray scanner used to inspect loaded trucks and containers. The HCVM can be deployed and ready to scan within 20 minutes, Norton said. He said it is used at almost all North American ports.

HCVMs have dedicated infrared barriers that equate to 60 feet, Norton said. So, the side opposite the X-ray scanner is shielded from all energy, he said.

The technology for these X-ray scanners has been around for the last 10 years but have significantly matured in the last five years, Norton said. "The technology really boils down to software. The next frontier will be how to columnate on both fields."

'Best of the best'

Zlatomir Apostolov, a second-year graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said the program has been remarkable. He is studying to be a materials science engineer. "Most of my work has been with X-ray. So, a lot of this is new. All the presenters have had lots of knowledge, and they've come from colleges, industry and all over. If that's not enlightening, I don't know what is."

"The line between research and real life is sometimes vague," Apostolov said. "What we'll be doing in theory, it's nice to see in actual applications. I knew it was helping in some way and somewhere. When you do the work on the theory, however, you don't see the actual applications. You learn about it in abstract terms," he said. "Here (at Smiths Detection) we get to see everyday uses."

"It's a wonderful opportunity for these students and the East Tennessee area," said Cecilia Cook, a user assistant with ORNL, who accompanied students on the trip. "If you have the best of the best looking at East Tennessee it helps us economically. With the stimulus money, we're (ORNL) going to be hiring more scientists."