Investigation into the Feasibility of Highly Enriched Uranium Detection by External Neutron Stimulation (Expanded Study)

Nelson, Martin E.; Ziegler, J. F.; Feigel, Harry F.; Good, Crystine M.; Blackburn, Bryan N.; John, J.; Locke, S.; Allen, J.

doi:10.21236/ada452712

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The food irradiation studies of Giroletti [7] agreed with those of Tenforde [6] and showed that no significant production of 24 Na would be seen. Nelson [8] looked at the activation of various common cargo items ranging from jars of pasta sauce to sheets of aluminium. By measuring the time taken for irradiated goods to return to background Nelson [8] showed that the activation would reduce to safe levels within the typical storage time of transported goods.…”

Section: Society For Radiological Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Radiological risks of neutron interrogation of food

Albright

Seviour

2015

J. Radiol. Prot.

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In recent years there has been growing interest in the use of neutron scanning techniques for security. Neutron techniques with a range of energy spectra including thermal, white and fast neutrons have been shown to work in different scenarios. As international interest in neutron scanning increases the risk of activating cargo, especially foodstuffs must be considered. There has been a limited amount of research into the activation of foods by neutron beams and we have sought to improve the amount of information available. In this paper we show that for three important metrics; activity, ingestion dose and Time to Background there is a strong dependence on the food being irradiated and a weak dependence on the energy of irradiation. Previous studies into activation used results based on irradiation of pharmaceuticals as the basis for research into activation of food. The earlier work reports that (24)Na production is the dominant threat which motivated the search for (24)Na(n,γ)(24)Na in highly salted foods. We show that (42)K can be more significant than (24)Na in low sodium foods such as Bananas and Potatoes.

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Section: Society For Radiological Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The experimental method Nelson [8] used an unmoderated 14 MeV neutron beam incident on a single layer of material. In reality as a neutron beam passes through a container the spectrum will become moderated.…”

Section: Society For Radiological Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiological risks of neutron interrogation of food

Albright

Seviour

2015

J. Radiol. Prot.

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“…Weapons grade plutonium (93% Pu 239 ) can be identified by either its 375 KeV or the 414 KeV gammas. Even when these two isotopes decay, many of their decay products are also strong gamma emitters, which can possibly be used to determine the presence or absence of SNM (Nelson 2006).…”

Section: Countsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of an Integrated Robotic Radioisotope Identification and Location System

Moore¹

2009

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Radioisotopes produced by neutron irradiation of food

Albright

Seviour

2016

Applied Radiation and Isotopes

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The use of neutrons for cargo interrogation has the potential to drastically improve threat detection. Previous research has focussed on the production of (24)Na, based on the isotopes produced in pharmaceuticals and medical devices. For both the total activity and the ingestion dose we show that a variety of isotopes contribute and that (24)Na is only dominant under certain conditions. The composition of the foods has a strong influence on the resulting activity and ingestion dose suggesting that the pharmaceuticals and medical devices considered initially are not a viable analogue for foodstuffs. There is an energy dependence to the isotopes produced due to the cross-sections of different reactions varying with neutron energy. We show that this results in different isotopes dominating the ingestion dose at different energies, which has not been considered in the previous literature.

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Investigation into the Feasibility of Highly Enriched Uranium Detection by External Neutron Stimulation (Expanded Study)

Cited by 3 publications

References 13 publications

Radiological risks of neutron interrogation of food

Radiological risks of neutron interrogation of food

Development of an Integrated Robotic Radioisotope Identification and Location System

Radioisotopes produced by neutron irradiation of food

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