&lt;title&gt;Key research issues in the pulsed fast-neutron analysis technique for cargo inspection&lt;/title&gt;

Micklich, B.J.; Fink, C.L.; Yule, T.J.

doi:10.1117/12.189179

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Activation of agricultural products is very low as well. Although no applicable standards have been identified, the levels of radioactivity predicted for neutron activation in even the worst case are much lower than the naturally present 40 K content of many foods widely used for human consumption.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Similarly, fast neutrons have been used in systems such as NELIS [27] and PELAN [35][36][37] for explosives in munitions and utilize time-of-flight to delineate depth in the cargo and neutron capture γ-rays to provide remote chemical assay [28-30, 32, 33, 38-40] or even imaging of certain elements [39,41]. These technologies have been reviewed by Martz & Griffin [42], Kahn[43] and some of the technical challenges are summarized by Micklich [40] and Moss[23]. Those techniques developed earlier may be applied here to augment the capabilities of this system.…”

Section: Detection Of Chemical Weapons and Explosivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Detection of Special Nuclear Material in Cargo Containers Using Neutron Interrogation

Slaughter¹,

Accatino²,

Bernstein³

et al. 2003

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Detection Of Chemical Weapons and Explosivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Special Nuclear Material in Cargo Containers Using Neutron Interrogation

Slaughter¹,

Accatino²,

Bernstein³

et al. 2003

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“…Pulsed generators can provide elemental assay for drug and HE detection OSI (formerly Ancore and SAIC), and by Pulsed Fast/Thermal Neutron Analysis, PFTNA [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Similarly, fast neutrons have been used in systems such as NELIS [27] and PELAN [35][36][37] for explosives in munitions and utilize time-offlight to delineate depth in the cargo and neutron capture g-rays to provide remote chemical assay[28- 30,32,33,[38][39][40] or even imaging of certain elements [39,41]. These technologies have been reviewed by Martz & Griffin [42], Kahn[43] and some of the technical challenges are summarized by Micklich [40] and Moss[23].…”

Section: Detection Of Chemical Weapons and Explosivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, fast neutrons have been used in systems such as NELIS [27] and PELAN [35][36][37] for explosives in munitions and utilize time-offlight to delineate depth in the cargo and neutron capture g-rays to provide remote chemical assay[28- 30,32,33,[38][39][40] or even imaging of certain elements [39,41]. These technologies have been reviewed by Martz & Griffin [42], Kahn[43] and some of the technical challenges are summarized by Micklich [40] and Moss[23]. Those techniques developed earlier may be applied here to augment the capabilities of this system.…”

Section: Detection Of Chemical Weapons and Explosivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Screening of Maritime Containers to Intercept Weapons of Mass Destruction

Manatt¹,

Sleaford²,

Schäffer³

et al. 2004

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The goal of our research was to address the problem of detection of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) materials within containers in common use on commercial cargo trafficking. LLNL has created an experimental test bed for researching potential solutions using (among other techniques) active interrogation with neutrons. Experiments and computational modeling were used to determine the effectiveness of the technique.Chemical weapons materials and high explosives can be detected using neutron activation and simple geometries with little or no intervening material. However in a loaded container there will be nuisance alarms from conflicting signatures resulting from the presence of material between the target and the detector (and the interrogation source). Identifying some elements may require long counting times because of the increased background. We performed some simple signature measurements and simulations of gamma-ray spectra from several chemical simulants. We identified areas where the nuclear data was inadequate to perform detailed computations.We concentrated on the detection of SNM in cargo containers, which will be emphasized here. The goal of the work reported here is to develop a concept for an active neutron interrogation system that can detect small targets of SNM contraband in cargo containers, roughly 5 kg HEU or 1 kg Pu, even when well shielded by a thick cargo. It is essential that the concept be reliable and have low false-positive and false-negative error rates. It also must be rapid to avoid interruption of commerce, completing the analysis in minutes.A potentially viable concept for cargo interrogation has been developed and its components have been evaluated experimentally. A new radiation signature unique to SNM has been identified that utilizes high-energy, fission-product gamma rays. That signature due to g-radiation in the range 3-6 MeV is distinct from normal background radioactivity that does not extend above 2.6 MeV. It's short half-life of 20-55 sec makes it distinct from neutron activation due to the interrogation that is typically much longer lived. This work spawned a collaboration with LBNL where experiments verified the abundance and other characteristics of this new signature [24]. Follow-on work funded by DoE/NA22 led to the development of a detailed system concept and evaluation of its impact on operating personnel and cargos [60] and characterization of one important interference that was identified [61]. The follow-on work led to two patent applications at LBNL and LLNL. The signature flux, while small, is 2-5 decades more intense than delayed neutron signals used and facilitates the detection of SNM even when shielded by thick cargo. The actual benefit is highly dependent on the type and thickness of cargo, with modest benefit in the case of metallic cargos of iron, lead, or aluminum, but maximum benefit in the case of hydrogenous cargo. In addition, unwanted collateral effects of the interrogation, such as neutron activation of the cargo, were analyzed [60] and one sign...

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“…8. This model makes the simplifying assumption that gamma rays caused by scattered neutrons are unimportant.…”

Section: Pulsed Fast-neutron Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

<title>Transport simulation and image reconstruction for fast-neutron detection of explosives and narcotics</title>

1995

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R ( 1 1 -7. : _I Argonne, Illinois 60439 USA Ad::.,$ 0 j .Fast-neutron inspection techniques show considerable promise for explosive and narcotics detection. A key advantage of using fast neutrons is their sensitivity to low-2 elements (carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen), which are the primary constituents of these materials. We are currently investigating two interrogation methods in detail Fast-Neutron Transmission Spectroscopy (FNTS) and Pulsed Fast-Neutron Analysis (PFNA). FNTS is being studied for explosives and narcotics detection in luggage and small containers for which the transmission ratio is greater than about 0.01. The Monte-Carlo radiation transport code MCNP is being used to simulate neutron transmission through a series of phantoms for a few (3-5) projection angles and modest (2 cm) resolution. Areal densities along projection rays are unfolded from the transmission data. Elemental abundances are obtained for individual voxels by tomographic reconstruction, and these reconstructed elemental images are combined to provide indications of the presence or absence of explosives or narcotics. PFNA techniques are being investigated for detection of narcotics in cargo containers because of the good penetration of the fast neutrons and the low attenuation of the resulting high-energy gamma-ray signatures. Analytic models and Monte-Carlo simulations are being used to explore the range of capabilities of PFNA techniques and to provide insight into systems engineering issues. Results of studies from both FNTS and PFNA techniques are presented.

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<title>Key research issues in the pulsed fast-neutron analysis technique for cargo inspection</title>

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

Detection of Special Nuclear Material in Cargo Containers Using Neutron Interrogation

Detection of Special Nuclear Material in Cargo Containers Using Neutron Interrogation

Screening of Maritime Containers to Intercept Weapons of Mass Destruction

<title>Transport simulation and image reconstruction for fast-neutron detection of explosives and narcotics</title>

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