Ghostbusters Tech Zaps WMD

Which team of scientists come charging into action armed with mobile proton accelerators, ready to neutralize terrifying threats to our cities?

No, not Ghosbuststers, Inc., though their use of unlicensed particle accelerators to battle evil is well known. Our heroes are the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the arm of the Pentagon tasked with safeguarding the U.S. from Weapons of Mass Destruction. In particular, DTRA is looking for new method for 'agent defeat' –- rendering chemical and biological warfare agents safe -– and a request for proposals titled Agent Defeat Using Proton Accelerator suggests that some real-life Ghostbusters tech might be just the thing:

*Cancer treatment using high energy protons is driving a surge in the construction of proton accelerators as well as research into new technologies for reducing the machine size and the attendant operational burden. *

*One attractive attribute of high energy protons is that they can be focused and stopped at a predetermined point inside the target, where they then deposit most of their energy. For cancer treatment this feature can target deeply buried tumors with minimal effect to surrounding healthy tissue. For agent defeat, this feature may similarly allow a focusing of energy upon pockets of bio-agent contained inside of storage containers or weapons. *

In the case of weapons, such focusing capability could offer tactical options of either disabling or avoiding the explosives and fuses used by the weapon for agent dispersal, depending on the situation.

Many research issues remain to be answered before new proton accelerator technology can be applied to the bulk agent defeat problem. For instance, what mechanisms produce the defeat of biological agents? What effects do these proton mechanisms have upon other dangerous materials likely to be found in conjunction with the bio-agents, for instance, chemical agents and explosives?

The document described the proposed development stages, starting with:

PHASE I: Perform research and analysis of the generation of high-energy proton beams and the mechanisms of interaction between these high energy proton beams and various bio-agent systems ...

And leading up to :

PHASE III: Perform systems integration and demonstration of a field-deployable proton-beam generator that will fully neutralize bulk bio-agent in warehouse and weapon storage conditions.

It’s a very ambitious scheme, and highly speculative at this stage. Still, the payoff could be very high. Being able to neutralize biological material and explosives at a distance without having to breach the container might be very much safer than exiting methods. And it's not hard to see how many spin-offs would be possible if the technology could be provided cheaply.

(Incidentally, crossing the beams from two proton packs, which was supposed to be a deadly hazard in the movies, would not cause any particular problem in real life).

So when you find a stockpile of lethal biological weapons, who ya gonna call?