Fissile material detection using neutron time-correlations from photofission
Name
1.5082174.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
4.21 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4e54830abb3f22d563af6475c21472d7
Author(s)
Soltz, R. A.
Danagoulian, Areg
Hartouni, E. P.
Johnson, M. S.
Sheets, S. A.
Glenn, A.
Korbly, S. E.
Ledoux, R. J.
Date Issued
February 2019
Journal
AIP Advances
Publisher
AIP Publishing
Citation
Soltz, R.A., et al., "Fissile material detection using neutron time-correlations from photofission."
AIP Advances 9, 2 (2019): no. 025011 doi: 10.1063/1.5082174 ©2019 Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The detection of special nuclear materials (SNM) in commercial cargoes is a major objective in the field of nuclear security. In this work we investigate the use of two-neutron time-correlations from photo-fission using the Prompt Neutrons from Photofission (PNPF) detectors in Passport Systems Inc.'s (PSI) Shielded Nuclear Alarm Resolution (SNAR) platform for the purpose of detecting ∼5 kg quantities of fissionable materials in seconds. The goal of this effort was to extend the secondary scan mode of this system to differentiate fissile materials, such as highly enriched uranium, from fissionable materials, such as low enriched and depleted uranium (LEU and DU). Experiments were performed using a variety of material samples, and data were analyzed using the variance-over-mean technique referred to as Y 2F or Feynman-α. Results were compared to computational models to improve our ability to predict system performance for distinguishing fissile materials. Simulations were then combined with empirical formulas to generate receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves for a variety of shielding scenarios. We show that a 10 second screening with a 200 μA 9 MeV X-ray beam is sufficient to differentiate kilogram quantities of HEU from DU in various shielding scenarios in a standard cargo container. ©2019
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5082174
