Final answer:
CR plates are significantly more sensitive to background radiation than older film screen cassettes, resulting in lower radiation doses to patients and improved image quality.
Step-by-step explanation:
CR plates, or computed radiography plates, are significantly more sensitive to background radiation than the older film screen cassettes traditionally used in imaging. The older film technology required a quantum of energy, such as a photon from an X-ray, to chemically alter the emulsion on the film, leading to exposure. This process was not entirely efficient, with a good proportion of the incident radiation not contributing to the image due to insufficient energy transfer. On the other hand, CR plates use a storage phosphor technology that can capture a broader spectrum of radiation energies and can be reused, converting the latent image into a digital one using a scanner. The increased sensitivity offers the advantage of lower radiation doses to patients and better image quality.