Abstract
We describe a unified framework for model-based iterative 3-D reconstruction of multimodal neutron transmission, hydrogen-scatter, and induced-fission images from low resolution data recorded using 14.1-MeV neutrons and the associated-particle imaging (API) technique. The framework, which was developed to facilitate use in challenging field-deployment scenarios, is centered around physics-based system models and a total variation (TV) constrained implementation of the simultaneous iterative reconstruction technique (SIRT). Modified to solve a statistically weighted least squares (WLS) problem, the SIRT algorithm is accelerated using ordered subsets and Nesterov’s momentum for which we derive a near-optimal value of the governing Lipschitz constant. The approach enables the reconstruction of images that are high resolution compared to the acquired data and is robust to both limited statistics and a limited number of projection angles. Moreover, the framework is fast enough to be practical. Example images are provided that demonstrate both the ability to perform fast-neutron imaging of high-atomic-number materials with low radiation dose and the benefit of multimodal neutron imaging to identify key materials.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1686-1697 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2025 |
Funding
Received 11 February 2025; accepted 19 March 2025. Date of publication 24 March 2025; date of current version 19 May 2025. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NA-22). The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan). (Corresponding author: Jens Gregor.) Jens Gregor is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA (e-mail: [email protected]).
Keywords
- Hydrogen scatter
- Nesterov’s momentum
- induced fission
- neutron tomography
- simultaneous iterative reconstruction technique (SIRT)
- total variation (TV)