Acoustic resonance spectroscopy for safeguards

Journal Article · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:75880

Olinger, C T ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

Acoustic resonance spectroscopy (ARS) nonintrusively assesses changes in a sealed item, such as a special nuclear material (SNM) container. The acoustic spectrum of a container is a function of its geometry, material of construction, and occupied volume and a function of the parameters of the contents, such as acoustic velocity, viscosity, and composition. Measuring the spectrum establishes a fingerprint for that item. Monitoring for changes in the fingerprint can be used to detect intrinsic changes in the contents or tampering. Spectra are obtained by inducing vibrations in a container at a given frequency with one transducer and detecting the vibrational response at that frequency with a second transducer. The excitation and detection frequency is then incremented until the desired frequency range is sampled. If desired, the signature can then be reduced to a series of resonant peaks, which facilitates the comparison of spectra for many applications. Required measurement time is typically 10 to 40 s, depending on the measurement range and resolution. Useful attributes of ARS are that spectra respond to various parameters differently, only a few seconds are required to perform an ARS measurement, and measurements can be performed without disturbing the container or its contents. Analysis for these applications of ARS is based on comparison of spectra from the same item taken at different times, so anomalies can be detected without any modeling of the system. However, some theoretical modeling can aid in interpreting spectra.

• OSTI ID: 75880
• Report Number(s): CONF-940602--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 70; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
CONTAINERS
DESIGN
INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEMS
LOSSES
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
SAFEGUARDS
SOUND WAVES
SPECTRA