The use of muon tomography for structural integrity and ground remediation and characterisation

Muon tomography is a technique that harnesses naturally-occurring cosmic radiation, specifically muons, to provide information on density contrasts in objects and/or locations that are otherwise difficult to access. A short description of the technique along with some historical background concerning the birth and evolution of of the method is presented. This paper focusses on two specific application areas of muon tomography pioneered by Geoptic - a UK company spin-out from 3 UK universities. The first application is the use of muon tomography to locate, identify and characterise hidden voiding in a geological overburden. This application of the muon tomography technique will be described through the example of programme of work carried out over the past 5 years with Network Rail focusses on rail tunnel asset management, specifically the location and identification of voiding within tunnels. The second example of the application of muon tomography to aiding understand of the geosphere will summarise a programme of work carried out by Geoptic and commissioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency which assesses the use of the technique to address both the safety and safeguarding agendas for deep underground geological repositories. The paper concludes by discussing other potential applications of muon tomography that will be of interest to the non-destructive testing community. These applications include structural integrity monitoring in tunnels, ground remediation and characterisation and structural defect determination in concrete structures.