Imaging carbon and nitrogen concentrations for narcotics and explosives screening
- Virginia Tech, Blacksburgy, VA (United States)
The author describes a nuclear technique for imaging carbon and nitrogen concentrations with surface densities characteristics of bulk narcotics and concealed explosives, the Carbon and the Nitrogen Camera. The physics is rooted in the tightly bound carbon-12 nucleus to which its neighboring isobars, nitrogen-12 and boron-12, decay rapidly (11 and 20 ms), mostly to its ground state, by emitting energetic beta particles (E{sub {beta}}{sup max} {approximately} 13 and 17 MeV) all of which produce bremsstrahlung and some yield annihilate radiation. The signal, photons detected in the multiscalar mode, results from the reactions {sup 13}C({gamma},p){sup 12}{Beta} for the bulk narcotics application and {sup 14}N({gamma},2n){sup 12}N and 14N({gamma},2p){sup 12}{Beta} for explosives detection and are initiated by a stepped pulsed electron beam with energy of {approximately} 30 and {approximately} 50 MeV, respectively. Images of 180 {approximately} 5 cm{sup 2} pixels taken in {approximately} 7 seconds will be presented of the carbon in a kilo of cocaine and the nitrogen in 125 grams of SEMTEX.
- OSTI ID:
- 141228
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-930304-; TRN: 93:003688-0904
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 205. American Chemical Society national meeting, Denver, CO (United States), 28 Mar - 2 Apr 1993; Other Information: PBD: 1993; Related Information: Is Part Of 205th ACS national meeting; PB: 1951 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Progress in instrumenting the nitrogen/carbon cameras
A sensitive, selective, and portable detector for contraband: The compact integrated narcotics detection instrument