Detection of special nuclear material from delayed neutron emission induced by a dual-particle monoenergetic source

M. Mayer; J. Nattress; I. Jovanovic

doi:10.1063/1.4955051

Detection of special nuclear material from delayed neutron emission induced by a dual-particle monoenergetic source

M. Mayer, J. Nattress, I. Jovanovic

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13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Detection of unique signatures of special nuclear materials is critical for their interdiction in a variety of nuclear security and nonproliferation scenarios. We report on the observation of delayed neutrons from fission of uranium induced in dual-particle active interrogation based on the ¹¹B(d,n γ)¹²C nuclear reaction. Majority of the fissions are attributed to fast fission induced by the incident quasi-monoenergetic neutrons. A Li-doped glass-polymer composite scintillation neutron detector, which displays excellent neutron/γ discrimination at low energies, was used in the measurements, along with a recoil-based liquid scintillation detector. Time-dependent buildup and decay of delayed neutron emission from ²³⁸U were measured between the interrogating beam pulses and after the interrogating beam was turned off, respectively. Characteristic buildup and decay time profiles were compared to the common parametrization into six delayed neutron groups, finding a good agreement between the measurement and nuclear data. This method is promising for detecting fissile and fissionable materials in cargo scanning applications and can be readily integrated with transmission radiography using low-energy nuclear reaction sources.

Original language	English
Article number	264102
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	108
Issue number	26
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4955051
State	Published - Jun 27 2016
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ECCS-1348366 and by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Grant Award No. 2014-DN-077-ARI078-02. The research of J.N. was performed under appointment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation International Safeguards Graduate Fellowship Program sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration's Next Generation Safeguards Initiative. The authors would like to thank P. Binns and H. Moazeni of MIT Bates Research and Engineering Center for help with operating the linear accelerator, to Z. Ounaies, A. Foster, A. Meddeb, and C. Trivelpiece of Pennsylvania State University for their contributions to the development of the neutron detector used in this work, to P. Rose and A. Erickson of Georgia Institute of Technology for their contributions to active interrogation experiments, and to Z. Hartwig of MIT for assistance with the ADAQ software.

Funders	Funder number
MIT Bates Research and Engineering Center
National Science Foundation	ECCS-1348366
U.S. Department of Homeland Security	2014-DN-077-ARI078-02
National Nuclear Security Administration
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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abstract = "Detection of unique signatures of special nuclear materials is critical for their interdiction in a variety of nuclear security and nonproliferation scenarios. We report on the observation of delayed neutrons from fission of uranium induced in dual-particle active interrogation based on the 11B(d,n γ)12C nuclear reaction. Majority of the fissions are attributed to fast fission induced by the incident quasi-monoenergetic neutrons. A Li-doped glass-polymer composite scintillation neutron detector, which displays excellent neutron/γ discrimination at low energies, was used in the measurements, along with a recoil-based liquid scintillation detector. Time-dependent buildup and decay of delayed neutron emission from 238U were measured between the interrogating beam pulses and after the interrogating beam was turned off, respectively. Characteristic buildup and decay time profiles were compared to the common parametrization into six delayed neutron groups, finding a good agreement between the measurement and nuclear data. This method is promising for detecting fissile and fissionable materials in cargo scanning applications and can be readily integrated with transmission radiography using low-energy nuclear reaction sources.",

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N2 - Detection of unique signatures of special nuclear materials is critical for their interdiction in a variety of nuclear security and nonproliferation scenarios. We report on the observation of delayed neutrons from fission of uranium induced in dual-particle active interrogation based on the 11B(d,n γ)12C nuclear reaction. Majority of the fissions are attributed to fast fission induced by the incident quasi-monoenergetic neutrons. A Li-doped glass-polymer composite scintillation neutron detector, which displays excellent neutron/γ discrimination at low energies, was used in the measurements, along with a recoil-based liquid scintillation detector. Time-dependent buildup and decay of delayed neutron emission from 238U were measured between the interrogating beam pulses and after the interrogating beam was turned off, respectively. Characteristic buildup and decay time profiles were compared to the common parametrization into six delayed neutron groups, finding a good agreement between the measurement and nuclear data. This method is promising for detecting fissile and fissionable materials in cargo scanning applications and can be readily integrated with transmission radiography using low-energy nuclear reaction sources.

AB - Detection of unique signatures of special nuclear materials is critical for their interdiction in a variety of nuclear security and nonproliferation scenarios. We report on the observation of delayed neutrons from fission of uranium induced in dual-particle active interrogation based on the 11B(d,n γ)12C nuclear reaction. Majority of the fissions are attributed to fast fission induced by the incident quasi-monoenergetic neutrons. A Li-doped glass-polymer composite scintillation neutron detector, which displays excellent neutron/γ discrimination at low energies, was used in the measurements, along with a recoil-based liquid scintillation detector. Time-dependent buildup and decay of delayed neutron emission from 238U were measured between the interrogating beam pulses and after the interrogating beam was turned off, respectively. Characteristic buildup and decay time profiles were compared to the common parametrization into six delayed neutron groups, finding a good agreement between the measurement and nuclear data. This method is promising for detecting fissile and fissionable materials in cargo scanning applications and can be readily integrated with transmission radiography using low-energy nuclear reaction sources.

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Detection of special nuclear material from delayed neutron emission induced by a dual-particle monoenergetic source

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