Scanning for batteries

As the dangers involved in the air transport of lithium batteries have become more obvious, regulations governing their carriage have become more stringent. But how to enforce those regulations? How to prevent undeclared shipment?

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority has awarded a contract to US-based Rapiscan Systems to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting batteries in air cargo. The contract with the UK CAA, supported by UK Department for Transport funding, calls for Rapiscan “to develop advanced detection algorithms to establish the extent to which lithium batteries transported within air cargo can be identified.”