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Title: A new method for imaging nuclear threats using cosmic ray muons

Abstract

Muon tomography is a technique that uses cosmic ray muons to generate three-dimensional images of volumes using information contained in the Coulomb scattering of the muons. Advantages of this technique are the ability of cosmic rays to penetrate significant overburden and the absence of any additional dose delivered to subjects under study beyond the natural cosmic ray flux. Disadvantages include the relatively long exposure times and poor position resolution and complex algorithms needed for reconstruction. Furthermore, we demonstrate a new method for obtaining improved position resolution and statistical precision for objects with spherical symmetry.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. National Security Technologies, Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Nevada Test Site/National Security Technologies, LLC, NV (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Programs (DP)
OSTI Identifier:
1249216
Report Number(s):
DOE/NV/25946-1754
Journal ID: ISSN 2158-3226
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25946
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
AIP Advances
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2158-3226
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; cosmic-rays; muons; lead; tomography; imaging; reconstruction; copper; tantalum

Citation Formats

Morris, C. L., Bacon, Jeffrey, Borozdin, Konstantin, Miyadera, Haruo, Perry, John, Rose, Evan, Watson, Scott, White, Tim, Aberle, Derek J., Green, Jesse Andrew, McDuff, George G., Lukic, Zarija, and Milner, Edward C. A new method for imaging nuclear threats using cosmic ray muons. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4820349.
Morris, C. L., Bacon, Jeffrey, Borozdin, Konstantin, Miyadera, Haruo, Perry, John, Rose, Evan, Watson, Scott, White, Tim, Aberle, Derek J., Green, Jesse Andrew, McDuff, George G., Lukic, Zarija, & Milner, Edward C. A new method for imaging nuclear threats using cosmic ray muons. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4820349
Morris, C. L., Bacon, Jeffrey, Borozdin, Konstantin, Miyadera, Haruo, Perry, John, Rose, Evan, Watson, Scott, White, Tim, Aberle, Derek J., Green, Jesse Andrew, McDuff, George G., Lukic, Zarija, and Milner, Edward C. 2013. "A new method for imaging nuclear threats using cosmic ray muons". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4820349. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1249216.
@article{osti_1249216,
title = {A new method for imaging nuclear threats using cosmic ray muons},
author = {Morris, C. L. and Bacon, Jeffrey and Borozdin, Konstantin and Miyadera, Haruo and Perry, John and Rose, Evan and Watson, Scott and White, Tim and Aberle, Derek J. and Green, Jesse Andrew and McDuff, George G. and Lukic, Zarija and Milner, Edward C.},
abstractNote = {Muon tomography is a technique that uses cosmic ray muons to generate three-dimensional images of volumes using information contained in the Coulomb scattering of the muons. Advantages of this technique are the ability of cosmic rays to penetrate significant overburden and the absence of any additional dose delivered to subjects under study beyond the natural cosmic ray flux. Disadvantages include the relatively long exposure times and poor position resolution and complex algorithms needed for reconstruction. Furthermore, we demonstrate a new method for obtaining improved position resolution and statistical precision for objects with spherical symmetry.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4820349},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1249216}, journal = {AIP Advances},
issn = {2158-3226},
number = 8,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013},
month = {Thu Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
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Works referenced in this record:

Radiographic imaging with cosmic-ray muons
journal, March 2003


Statistical Reconstruction for Cosmic Ray Muon Tomography
journal, August 2007


Tomographic Imaging with Cosmic Ray Muons
journal, October 2008


Review of Particle Physics
journal, July 2010


Works referencing / citing this record:

Application of muon tomography to fuel cask monitoring
journal, December 2018

  • Poulson, Dan; Bacon, Jeff; Durham, Matt
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2137
  • https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0052

Imaging the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore using cosmic rays
journal, December 2018

  • Guardincerri, E.; Bacon, J. D.; Barros, N.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2137
  • https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0136