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Title: A new method for imaging nuclear threats using cosmic ray muons

Journal Article · · AIP Advances
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4820349· OSTI ID:1249216
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. National Security Technologies, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Muon tomography is a technique that uses cosmic ray muons to generate three-dimensional images of volumes using information contained in the Coulomb scattering of the muons. Advantages of this technique are the ability of cosmic rays to penetrate significant overburden and the absence of any additional dose delivered to subjects under study beyond the natural cosmic ray flux. Disadvantages include the relatively long exposure times and poor position resolution and complex algorithms needed for reconstruction. Furthermore, we demonstrate a new method for obtaining improved position resolution and statistical precision for objects with spherical symmetry.

Research Organization:
Nevada Test Site/National Security Technologies, LLC, NV (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Programs (DP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25946
OSTI ID:
1249216
Report Number(s):
DOE/NV/25946-1754
Journal Information:
AIP Advances, Vol. 3, Issue 8; ISSN 2158-3226
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (4)

Radiographic imaging with cosmic-ray muons journal March 2003
Statistical Reconstruction for Cosmic Ray Muon Tomography journal August 2007
Tomographic Imaging with Cosmic Ray Muons journal October 2008
Review of Particle Physics journal July 2010

Cited By (2)

Application of muon tomography to fuel cask monitoring
  • Poulson, Dan; Bacon, Jeff; Durham, Matt
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2137 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0052
journal December 2018
Imaging the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore using cosmic rays
  • Guardincerri, E.; Bacon, J. D.; Barros, N.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2137 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0136
journal December 2018

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Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
cosmic-rays
muons
lead
tomography
imaging
reconstruction
copper
tantalum