D-D neutron-scatter measurements for a novel explosives-detection technique

Evaluation of a flag-based explosives detection algorithm based on active neutron interrogation for use in sea land cargo containers

“…Next, laboratory measurements confirmed the validity of calculated neutron detector response functions that form the backbone of several later flag calculations [6]. These small-scale measurements used a D-D neutron generator and several small scatter targets.…”

“…Earlier measurements in the laboratory demonstrated that liquid scintillator based detectors of the same type as the proposed system measured background count rates of about 30 counts per second, with about 0.5 % of counts due to neutrons [6]. Calculations showed an intrinsic detection efficiency of approximately 13 % for neutrons, yielding a neutron background rate of 1.15 n s -1 [6]. The proposed detectors are considerably larger, with a neutron detector counting efficiency of approximately 20 %, based on comparisons of the PHDs and F1 tallies.…”

“…1 as a reference. All material atomic compositions may be found in earlier works [4][5][6][7][8]. In this geometry, a standard sized cargo container is located on a 25 cm thick concrete slab over a standard soil.…”

“…Previous measurements showed that a 10 % margin of error provided a conservative approximation of the uncertainty due to equipment measurement error, especially as much of the uncertainties due to light collection are included in the postprocessor [6,13]. In order to quantify the effect of measurement error on the flag calculations, an iterative computer program was created using a common software package (MATLAB).…”

A method for using neutron elastic scatter to create a variable energy neutron beam from a nearly monoenergetic neutron source

“…The search for explosives and narcotics can be performed using Pulsed Fast Neutron Analysis (PFNA) and neutron elastic scattering (Buffler, 2004;Lehnert et al, 2012;Lehnert and Kearfott, 2010, 2011a, 2011bStrellis et al, 2009;Whetstone and Kearfott, 2014). Neutron transmission and fast neutron radiography, which utilize neutrons that do not interact in a target, can be employed to investigate the elemental composition of a target (Overley et al, 2006;Sowerby and Tickner, 2007).…”