Bremsstrahlung versus Monoenergetic Photon Dose and Photonuclear Stimulation Comparisons At Long Standoff Distances

Conference · Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3275665· OSTI ID:966170

Jones, J L; Sterbentz, J W; Yoon, W Y

Energetic photon sources with energies greater than 6 MeV continue to be recognized as viable source for various types of inspection applications, especially those related to nuclear and/or explosive material detection. These energetic photons can be produced as a continuum of energies (i.e., bremsstrahlung distribution) or as a set of one or more discrete photon energies (i.e., monoenergetic distribution). This paper will provide a follow-on extension of the photon dose comparison presented at the 9th International Conference on Applications of Nuclear Techniques (June 2008). The latter paper showed the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the photon doses provided by these two energetic interrogation sources and highlighted the higher energy advantage of the bremsstrahlung source, especially at long standoff distances (i.e., distance from source to the inspected object). Specifically, this paper will pursue this higher energy photon inspection advantage (up to 100 MeV) by providing dose and stimulated photonuclear interaction predictions for air and an infinitely dilute interrogated material (used for comparative interaction rate assessments since it excludes material self-shielding) as the interrogation object positioned forward on the inspection beam axis at increasing standoff distances. In addition to the direct energetic photon-induced stimulation, the predictions will identify the importance of any secondary downscattered/attenuated source-term effects arising from the photon transport in the intervening atmosphere. *Supported in part by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho Operations Office under Contract Number DE-AC07-05ID14517.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-99ID13727
• OSTI ID: 966170
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-09-15815
• Conference Information: 10th International Conference on Applications of Nuclear Techniques,Crete, Greece,06/13/2009,06/20/2009
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
AIR
Air Photon Activation
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
DETECTION
DISTRIBUTION
EXPLOSIVES
Monoenergetic
PHOTON TRANSPORT
PHOTONS
Photonuclear interactions
STIMULATION