Israeli Scientists Develop NEW Explosives Detector

June 26, 2005

Device inventor Ehud Keinan explains that TATP, unlike conventional explosives, does not give off heat as it is detonated. Keinan and his research partners discovered that this is the reason detection devices for conventional weapons cannot recognize it. “To our surprise, we found that the detonation of this material was caused in a way that all its molecules in a solid state are changed within a fraction of a second to four molecules in a gaseous state,” Professor Keinan notes.

Keinan first revealed the findings at a national conference at the Center for Security Science and Technology at the Technion. He was presented then with the first prize in a competition to develop technology for defense against terror.

TATP and similar explosives from the peroxide family are widely used by various terrorist organizations across the world, since they are relatively easy to prepare and difficult to detect. The substances are very unstable and dangerous to their manufacturers, resulting in many “work accidents” in pirate labs established by Palestinian militants.

In recent years, a large number of suicide bombings in Israel have been carried out using TATP, including those that took place at the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv, at the pedestrian mall in Jerusalem, and on many buses.

By Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz

For further information, please contact the Center for Security Science and Technology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel; Tel: 972-4-829-2111; E-mail (Professor Avi Marmur): marmur@tx.technion.ac.il; Web site: www.technion.ac.il

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