Metal-Latticed Collimators for Radiation Portal Monitors

Ethan Wever, Collin Webb, Jung Hyun Bae, Robert Bean, Stefano Tognini, Paul Cantonwine, Alex Enders

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

Detecting illicit material moving through RPMs is in the interest of national security. Eliminating background counts increases the possibility of detecting a source passing through the RPM as determined by an increased SNR. The numerical approximation of the analytical solution provided expected values for the MCNP model and demonstrated that geometry and tallies were configured correctly. The MCNP model allowed numerous parameters to be changed easily to maximize the SNR. The ideal rectangular mesh configuration resulted in a 109% increase in SNR when the source was present somewhere centered on the detectors. When the source was outside of the RPM, then the SNR decreased significantly, but because the RPM alarm system would be triggered by only one inflated count output, the RPM would have a much higher SNR when the collimator is used. The ability to enhance the sensitivity to point-like sources (vs. distributed sources) can be a useful RPM feature. This increased SNR indicates that when implemented, metal lattice collimators can enhance the performance of existing deployed RPMs with no other modifications necessary.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)848-851
Number of pages4
JournalTransactions of the American Nuclear Society
Volume131
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024
Event2024 Transactions of the American Nuclear Society on Winter Conference and Expo, ANS 2024 - Orlando, United States
Duration: Nov 17 2024Nov 21 2024

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