Manhattan ? Hardly a day passes without news of U.S. troops being killed or wounded in Iraq, often from car bombs, roadside explosives and similar methods.

Halfway around the world, Bill Dunn, a Kansas State University nuclear engineering professor, works on ways to detect such explosives at a safe distance. Since November, he has been applying technology about neutron and gamma ray radiation to detect improvised explosive devices, or IEDs in military jargon.

Dunn isn’t seeking just scholarly satisfaction for proving some abstract theory.

“Everybody knows somebody affected by this war. Every single day, somebody is being killed over there,” said Dunn, whose expertise is radiation measurement and applications. “There’s an urgency about this project because it could potentially save lives.”

Since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, more than 1,450 U.S. troops have died from hostile action and at least 14,120 have been wounded.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Department of Defense spokesman, said IEDs are a major problem, largely because of munitions left behind after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

“When you consider about 70 percent of all attacks are made with IEDs of all types and account for more than one-third of all U.S. casualties, they are a big problem,” Venable said.

With some modifications here and few tweaks there, Dunn believes technology routinely used to figure soil density or measure muscle fat in meat can detect explosives.

Dunn envisions two types of sensors. One would be large and transported in a van, capable of detecting explosives several yards away. The van could be at a vehicle checkpoint and data could be fed into a computer a safe distance away.

Right now, the sensors can work up to a couple of yards, but Dunn’s goal is to extend that range to at least 10 yards and be able to detect an explosive in less than 10 seconds.

Bill Dunn, a Kansas State University nuclear engineering professor, examines data on a computer attatched to gamma and neutron detectors in a lab on the KSU campus in Manhattan.

After last month’s London transit bombings, Dunn started work on a smaller version – about 3 feet by 2 feet – that could be wheeled around to check smaller items such as suitcases and knapsacks.

It may be some time before the sensor could be carried by hand.

“Working with existing technology, we’re not optimistic about making something hand portable, but as technology advances, that may be possible,” he said.

Dunn also wants to find out how small an explosive can be and how many items can be around it and still be detected.

“Obviously, if we deploy something that detects explosives, the enemy will simply try to obscure them more and more,” Dunn said. “We want to be able to detect the explosives within a lot of clutter.”

The timetable from research to reality depends on funding. Dunn is operating with a $200,000 grant from the Marine Corps but hopes to get more.

“If we get more money, we could develop a small detector in a year and a larger one in less than two years. At the current rate, it would take four years,” Dunn said.

John Blair, program manager for the Lexington, Ky.-based M2 Technologies Inc., a conduit between researchers and the military, brought the idea to Dunn.

He said Dunn’s research shows promise and more government money has been requested.

“We gave him a little bit of seed money to see if it can work and he did it,” Blair said. “Because of recent events in London, we have looked at accelerating this.”

Blair said the eventual goal is being able to identify a bomb from 200 yards away and detect roadside IEDs while traveling at a high rate of speed.

“Are we there? No. Are we close? No. Are we on the path that could be successful? And the answer is yes,” Blair said.