Computational Assessment of Naturally Occurring Neutron and Photon Background Radiation Produced by Extraterrestrial Sources

Miller, Thomas Martin; de Wet, Wouter C.; Patton, Bruce W.

doi:10.13182/NT14-153

Title: Computational Assessment of Naturally Occurring Neutron and Photon Background Radiation Produced by Extraterrestrial Sources

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

In this study, a computational assessment of the variation in terrestrial neutron and photon background from extraterrestrial sources is presented. The motivation of this assessment is to evaluate the practicality of developing a tool or database to estimate background in real time (or near–real time) during an experimental measurement or to even predict the background for future measurements. The extraterrestrial source focused on during this assessment is naturally occurring galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). The MCNP6 transport code was used to perform the computational assessment. However, the GCR source available in MCNP6 was not used. Rather, models developed and maintained by NASA were used to generate the GCR sources. The largest variation in both neutron and photon background spectra was found to be caused by changes in elevation on Earth's surface, which can be as large as an order of magnitude. All other perturbations produced background variations on the order of a factor of 3 or less. The most interesting finding was that ~80% and 50% of terrestrial background neutrons and photons, respectively, are generated by interactions in Earth's surface and other naturally occurring and man-made objects near a detector of particles from extraterrestrial sources and their progeny created in Earth'smore »« less

Authors:

Miller, Thomas Martin ^[1]; de Wet, Wouter C. ^[2]; Patton, Bruce W. ^[1]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

Publication Date:: Wed Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

OSTI Identifier:: 1286826

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Nuclear Technology

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 192; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5450

Publisher:: American Nuclear Society (ANS)

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; galactic cosmic rays; background; Monte Carlo

Citation Formats


                    Miller, Thomas Martin, de Wet, Wouter C., and Patton, Bruce W. Computational Assessment of Naturally Occurring Neutron and Photon Background Radiation Produced by Extraterrestrial Sources.  United States: N. p., 2015. 
Web.  doi:10.13182/NT14-153.

Copy to clipboard


                    Miller, Thomas Martin, de Wet, Wouter C., & Patton, Bruce W. Computational Assessment of Naturally Occurring Neutron and Photon Background Radiation Produced by Extraterrestrial Sources.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.13182/NT14-153

Copy to clipboard


                    Miller, Thomas Martin, de Wet, Wouter C., and Patton, Bruce W. Wed .  
"Computational Assessment of Naturally Occurring Neutron and Photon Background Radiation Produced by Extraterrestrial Sources".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.13182/NT14-153.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1286826.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1286826,

  title        = {Computational Assessment of Naturally Occurring Neutron and Photon Background Radiation Produced by Extraterrestrial Sources},

  author       = {Miller, Thomas Martin and de Wet, Wouter C. and Patton, Bruce W.},

  abstractNote = {In this study, a computational assessment of the variation in terrestrial neutron and photon background from extraterrestrial sources is presented. The motivation of this assessment is to evaluate the practicality of developing a tool or database to estimate background in real time (or near–real time) during an experimental measurement or to even predict the background for future measurements. The extraterrestrial source focused on during this assessment is naturally occurring galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). The MCNP6 transport code was used to perform the computational assessment. However, the GCR source available in MCNP6 was not used. Rather, models developed and maintained by NASA were used to generate the GCR sources. The largest variation in both neutron and photon background spectra was found to be caused by changes in elevation on Earth's surface, which can be as large as an order of magnitude. All other perturbations produced background variations on the order of a factor of 3 or less. The most interesting finding was that ~80% and 50% of terrestrial background neutrons and photons, respectively, are generated by interactions in Earth's surface and other naturally occurring and man-made objects near a detector of particles from extraterrestrial sources and their progeny created in Earth's atmosphere. In conclusion, this assessment shows that it will be difficult to estimate the terrestrial background from extraterrestrial sources without a good understanding of a detector's surroundings. Therefore, estimating or predicting background during a measurement environment like a mobile random search will be difficult.},

  doi          = {10.13182/NT14-153},

  journal      = {Nuclear Technology},

  number       = 3,

  volume       = 192,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Wed Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015},

  month        = {Wed Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.13182/NT14-153

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Computational Assessment of Naturally Occurring Background Radiation Produced by Extraterrestrial Sources - Paper 43

Conference Miller, Thomas M. ; Wet, Wouter C. de

In recent years there has been increased interest in developing the ability to account for background radiation in real (or near-real) time in support of end-user field experiments or operational search missions. More specifically, the focus has been on creating an array of tools that can provide an estimate of the natural occurring radiation that an experimentalist or search operator can use in the field in real time while making a measurement. Conceptually, these tools would allow the experimentalist or search operator to be able to dynamically account for the background associated with the measurement resulting in significant improvement inmore »« less
MCNP6 Elevation Scaling of Cosmic Ray Backgrounds - Paper 29

Conference McMath, Garrett E. ; McKinney, Gregg W.

The galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) source option was implemented in the all-energy, all-particle transport code MCNP62 in 2010. This source option along with other newly added features to MCNP6 have been used to produce increasingly accurate global cosmic and terrestrial background flux data files (background.dat).3 This data file is produced on a grid and is read and sampled by MCNP6 whenever a user invokes the background source option. The most recent adaptation of this data file, Version 4, will be completed in 2014. This paper reports on current progress toward enhancements that have been made to the modeling and simulation ofmore »« less
DHS Written Report

Technical Report Palomares, Javier

Recently, a new galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) source option [1] was implemented in the all-energy, all-particle transport code MCNP6 [2]. In this paper, we made use of this feature to calculate surface neutron and photon background fluxes on a terrestrial grid around the earth. These spectra have been incorporated into Release 2 of the 'background.dat' file, which is read and sampled by MCNP6 whenever a user invokes the background source option [2]. Cosmic radiation bombards Earth with various particles, such as protons and {alpha} particles, some of which are deflected by the Earth's shielding magnetic field. Particles that carry sufficient energymore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/1050468

Full Text Available
Reconstructing Solar Particle Event Spectra from Absorbed Dose Measurements

Journal Article Bahadori, Amir A. ; Roberts, Jeremy A. ; Kroupa, Martin ; ... - Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

The space radiation environment is unlike anything encountered on Earth. It is dominated by heavy charged particles consisting of highly charged nuclei with atomic numbers ranging from 1 to 94 with a broad spectrum of kinetic energies. The three primary sources of radiation in space are trapped belts, galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), and solar particle events (SPEs). The trapped belts are only of concern near bodies with significant magnetic fields and GCR flux spectra are relatively well-predicted using models that account for solar modulation of the local interstellar spectrum. SPEs, which consist primarily of protons, are difficult to predict inmore »« less
X‐ray computed tomography of extraterrestrial rocks eradicates their natural radiation record and the information it contains

Journal Article Sears, Derek W. G. ; Sehlke, Alexander ; Friedrich, Jon M. ; ... - Meteoritics and Planetary Science

Abstract The radiation record of extraterrestrial rocks provides important insights into their thermal and radiation history. For meteorites this relates to their orbits, thermal history, terrestrial age, preatmospheric size and shape, and possibly cosmic ray exposure age. For meteorites from the Moon and Mars, the radiation record allows insights into transit times. For Martian surface samples, the radiation record enables estimates of their sedimentary age. Despite this, there is a growing tendency to artificially expose these samples to large radiation doses by the use of X‐ray computed tomography ( CT ) imaging, often as part of their initial examination. Inmore »« less
Cited by 12
https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13183

Similar Records