Discrimination of chemical and high-explosive munitions by neutron interrogation for arms control treaty verification

Conference · Fri Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:141254

Caffrey, A J; Cole, J D; Gehrke, R J; Greenwood, R C; Krebs, K M ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

For treaty verification purposes, due to the hazards of direct sampling of chemical and explosive munitions, non-destructive evaluation methods have important safety advantages. The authors assay method employs neutrons from a californium-252 radioisotopic source to induce capture and inelastic reactions in a munition under test, and the resulting gamma radiation is measured with an high-purity germanium gamma-ray detector. For field verification, a portable, battery-operated assay system has been developed that performs automatic spectrum analysis and agent identification in near-real time. In tests with actual chemical and high explosives munitions, the assay method reliably identifies nerve agents GB and VX, blister agents HD and L, white phosphorous, and high explosives.

• OSTI ID: 141254
• Report Number(s): CONF-930304-; TRN: 93:003688-0930
• 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

Related Subjects

40 CHEMISTRY
44 INSTRUMENTATION
INCLUDING NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE DETECTORS
35 ARMS CONTROL
CHEMICAL EXPLOSIVES
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
NUCLEAR REACTION ANALYSIS
ARMS CONTROL
VERIFICATION
CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS
NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
ORDNANCE
CALIFORNIUM 252
CAPTURE
INELASTIC SCATTERING
NEUTRON REACTIONS
HIGH-PURITY GE DETECTORS