Muon Tracking to Detect Special Nuclear Materials

Conference · Mon Mar 18 00:00:00 EDT 2013

OSTI ID:1137133

Schwellenbach, D. ^[1]; Dreesen, W. ^[1]; Green, J. A. ^[1]; Tibbitts, A. ^[1]; Schotik, G. ^[1]; Borozdin, K. ^[2]; Bacon, J. ^[2]; Midera, H. ^[2]; Milner, C. ^[2]; Morris, C. ^[2]; Perry, J. ^[2]; Barrett, S. ^[3]; Perry, K. ^[3]; Scott, A. ^[3]; Wright, C. ^[3]; Aberle, D. ^[1]

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1. NSTec
2. LANL
3. UW

Previous experiments have proven that nuclear assemblies can be imaged and identified inside of shipping containers using vertical trajectory cosmic-ray muons with two-sided imaging. These experiments have further demonstrated that nuclear assemblies can be identified by detecting fission products in coincidence with tracked muons. By developing these technologies, advanced sensors can be designed for a variety of warhead monitoring and detection applications. The focus of this project is to develop tomographic-mode imaging using near-horizontal trajectory muons in conjunction with secondary particle detectors. This will allow imaging in-situ without the need to relocate the objects and will enable differentiation of special nuclear material (SNM) from other high-Z materials.

• Research Organization: Nevada Test Site (NTS), Mercury, NV (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC52-06NA25946
• OSTI ID: 1137133
• Report Number(s): DOE/NV/25946-1723
• Resource Relation: Conference: Nuclear Weapons and Material Security Team Program Review Meeting; April 9-11, 2013
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

muon
special nuclear material
SNM