Developing a cosmic ray muon sampling capability for muon tomography and monitoring applications

Chatzidakis, Stylianos; Chrysikopoulou, S.; Tsoukalas, Lefteri H.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2015.09.033

Cited by 32 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The steep increase in the rate at low energies is dominated by secondary products of these muons, showering in the detector and in the nearby shielding components. This is demonstrated with a full Geant4 [44] simulation of atmospheric muons hitting the detector, following the energy and angular distribution of [45], which reproduces reasonably well the moun distribution at sea level [46]. The resulting spectrum matches the shape of the overall CONNIE spectrum above 5 keV, as shown in Fig.…”

Section: A Stability Of the Background Radiationsupporting

confidence: 52%

Exploring low-energy neutrino physics with the Coherent Neutrino Nucleus Interaction Experiment

Aguilar-Arevalo¹,

Bertou²,

Bonifazi³

et al. 2019

Phys. Rev. D

106

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The Coherent Neutrino-Nucleus Interaction Experiment (CONNIE) uses low-noise fully depleted charge-coupled devices (CCDs) with the goal of measuring low-energy recoils from coherent elastic scattering (CEνNS) of reactor antineutrinos with silicon nuclei. This standard model process has not yet been observed at recoil energies below 20 keV. We report here the first results of the detector array deployed in 2016, with an active mass of 73.2 g (12 CCDs), which is operating at a distance of 30 m from the core of the Angra 2 nuclear reactor, with a thermal power of 3.8 GW. A search for neutrino events is performed by comparing data collected with reactor on (2.1 kg-day) and reactor off (1.6 kg-day). The results show no excess in the reactor-on data, reaching the world record sensitivity down to recoil energies of about 1 keV (0.1 keV electron-equivalent). A 95% confidence level limit for new physics is established at an event rate of 40 times the one expected from the standard model at this energy scale. The results presented here provide a new window to the low-energy neutrino physics, which allows one to explore for the first time the lowest energies accessible through the CEνNS with antineutrinos from nuclear reactors.

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Section: A Stability Of the Background Radiationsupporting

confidence: 52%

Exploring low-energy neutrino physics with the Coherent Neutrino Nucleus Interaction Experiment

Aguilar-Arevalo¹,

Bertou²,

Bonifazi³

et al. 2019

Phys. Rev. D

106

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“…In 2015, Chatzidakis et al modified the parameters in the model by fitting them to experimental data (Chatzidakis et al, 2015). The modified parameters are listed in…”

Section: Smith and Duller/chatzidakis Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparison of Muon Flux Models at Sea Level for Muon Imaging and Low Background Experiments

Liu

Wang

et al. 2021

Front. Energy Res.

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Cosmic-ray muons are a type of natural radiation with high energy and a strong penetration ability. The flux distribution of such particles at sea level is a key problem in many areas, especially in the field of muon imaging and low background experiments. This paper summarizes the existing models to describe sea-level muon flux distributions. According to different means used, four parametric analytical models and one Monte Carlo model, which is referred to as CRY, are selected as typical sea-level muon flux distribution models. Then, the theoretical values of sea-level muon fluxes given by these models are compared with the experimental sea-level muon differential flux data with kinetic energy values in the range of 1–1,000 GeV in the directions of zenith angles 0° and 75°. The goodness of fit of these models to the experimental data was quantitatively calculated by Pearson’s chi-square test. The results of the comparison show that the commonly used Gaisser model overestimates the muon flux in the low-energy region, while the muon flux given by the Monte Carlo model CRY at the large zenith angle of 75° is significantly lower than that of the experimental data. The muon flux distribution given by the other three parametric analytical models is consistent with the experimental data. The results indicate that the original Gaisser model is invalid in the low energy range, and CRY apparently deviates at large zenith angles. These two models can be substituted with the muon flux models given by Gaisser/Tang, Bugaev/Reyna, and Smith and Duller/Chatzidakis according to actual experimental conditions.

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“…GEANT4 does not provide a built-in library for muon energy and angular distribution. To overcome this difficulty, a "Muon Event Generator", i.e., a cosmic ray muon sampling method, using a phenomenological model that captures the main characteristics of the experimentally measured spectrum coupled with a set of statistical algorithms, is used [37]. Dry…”

Section: B Dry Cask Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The actual muon energy spectrum and angular distribution were reproduced using a "Muon Event Generator" [37]. The "Muon Event Generator" generates muons that follow the experimentally measured seal level spectrum.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Spent Nuclear Fuel Imaging Using Multiple Coulomb Scattering of Cosmic Muons

Chatzidakis

Choi

Tsoukalas

2016

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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Cosmic ray muons passing through matter lose energy from inelastic collisions with electrons and are deflected from nuclei due to multiple Coulomb scattering. The strong dependence of scattering on atomic number Z and the recent developments on position sensitive muon detectors indicate that multiple Coulomb scattering could be an excellent candidate for spent nuclear fuel imaging. Muons present significant advantages over existing monitoring and imaging techniques and can play a central role in monitoring nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel stored in dense well shielded containers. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability of multiple Coulomb scattering for imaging of spent nuclear fuel dry casks stored within vertical and horizontal commercial storage dry casks. Calculations of muon scattering were performed for various scenarios, including vertical and horizontal fully loaded dry casks, half loaded dry casks, dry casks with one row of fuel assemblies missing, dry casks with one fuel assembly missing and empty dry casks. Various detector sizes (1.2 m x 1.2 m, 2.4 m x 2.4 m and 3.6 m x 3.6 m) and number of muons (10 5 , 5·10 5 , 10 6 and 10 7 ) were used to assess the effect on image resolution. The Point-of-Closest-Approach (PoCA) algorithm was used for the reconstruction of the stored contents. The results demonstrate that multiple Coulomb scattering can be used to successfully reconstruct the dry cask contents and allow identification of all scenarios with the exception of one fuel assembly missing. In this case, an indication exists that a fuel assembly is not present; however the resolution of the imaging algorithm was not enough to identify exact location.*Corresponding author: schatzid@purdue.edu I. INTRODUCTIONSince the pioneering work of E.P. George [1] and L. Alvarez [2], relativistic muons have been shown to have the ability to penetrate dense materials and by monitoring the subsequent scattering and/or attenuation of muons, a measurable signal about the structure and composition of the interrogated material can be obtained [3]. Recently, cosmic ray muons have been investigated for volcano imaging and cargo scanning applications and their use has been extended to nuclear waste imaging and determination of molten nuclear fuel location in nuclear reactors having suffered from the effects of a severe accident similar to the one happened in Fukushima [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].Earlier muon radiographic techniques were based on attenuation principles. A new promising method based on multiple Coulomb scattering was developed and demonstrated at LANL for detection of high-Z materials hidden in a large volume of low-Z materials, a situation representative of shielded material shielded hidden in a cargo container [24,25]. It was suggested that muon momentum measurement which can be achieved by indirectly measuring muon scattering in several layers of materials with known thickness could improve image resolution.This was later demonstrate...

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Developing a cosmic ray muon sampling capability for muon tomography and monitoring applications

Cited by 32 publications

References 27 publications

Exploring low-energy neutrino physics with the Coherent Neutrino Nucleus Interaction Experiment

Exploring low-energy neutrino physics with the Coherent Neutrino Nucleus Interaction Experiment

A Comparison of Muon Flux Models at Sea Level for Muon Imaging and Low Background Experiments

Analysis of Spent Nuclear Fuel Imaging Using Multiple Coulomb Scattering of Cosmic Muons

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