Muon tomography - ready for practical application?

Muon tomography uses naturally occurring nuclear particles to 'X-ray' technical objects. It has applications in security and nuclear safeguards, but not yet in civil engineering. The potential is enormous, as muon tomography could replace traditional X-ray imaging of infrastructure, a method that was popular in the past but has mostly been abandoned due to concerns about radiation safety. In 2020, a report on the first large-scale muon tomography experiment on a reinforced concrete specimen was published. However, robust mobile detectors and faster data acquisition methods are still needed. This is now changing, however. Prototype mobile detectors have been announced or are in development, and data acquisition time has been reduced from weeks to days. This presentation will showcase current developments and focus on a validation experiment at BAM.