Uncovering Special Nuclear Materials by Low-energy Nuclear Reaction Imaging

Rose, P. B.; Erickson, A. S.; Mayer, M.; Nattress, J.; Jovanovic, I.

doi:10.1038/srep24388

Uncovering Special Nuclear Materials by Low-energy Nuclear Reaction Imaging

Journal Article · Mon Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24388· OSTI ID:1258575

Rose, P. B. ^[1]; Erickson, A. S. ^[1]; Mayer, M. ^[2]; Nattress, J. ^[2]; Jovanovic, I. ^[2]

Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States). G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear and Radiological Engineering Program
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering

Weapons-grade uranium and plutonium could be used as nuclear explosives with extreme destructive potential. The problem of their detection, especially in standard cargo containers during transit, has been described as “searching for a needle in a haystack” because of the inherently low rate of spontaneous emission of characteristic penetrating radiation and the ease of its shielding. Currently, the only practical approach for uncovering well-shielded special nuclear materials is by use of active interrogation using an external radiation source. However, the similarity of these materials to shielding and the required radiation doses that may exceed regulatory limits prevent this method from being widely used in practice. We introduce a low-dose active detection technique, referred to as low-energy nuclear reaction imaging, which exploits the physics of interactions of multi-MeV monoenergetic photons and neutrons to simultaneously measure the material’s areal density and effective atomic number, while confirming the presence of fissionable materials by observing the beta-delayed neutron emission. For the first time, we demonstrate identification and imaging of uranium with this novel technique using a simple yet robust source, setting the stage for its wide adoption in security applications.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Washington, DC (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

OSTI ID:: 1258575

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1253860

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Vol. 6; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Low-dose material-specific radiography using monoenergetic photons Harms, Joseph; Maloney, Luke; Erickson, Anna PLOS ONE, Vol. 14, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222026	journal	September 2019
Experimental demonstration of multiple monoenergetic gamma radiography for effective atomic number identification in cargo inspection Henderson, Brian S.; Lee, Hin Y.; MacDonald, Thomas D. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5025805	journal	April 2018

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