Abstract
This paper investigates the energy spectrum of photon signatures from an associated particle imaging deuterium tritium (API-DT) neutron generator interrogating shielded uranium. The goal is to investigate if signatures within the energy spectrum could be used to indirectly characterize shielded uranium when the neutron signature is attenuated. By utilizing the correlated neutron cone associated with each pixel of the API-DT neutron generator, certain materials can be identified and located via source correlated spectrometry of prompt neutron activation gamma rays. An investigation is done to determine if fission neutrons induce a significant enough signature within the prompt neutron-induced gamma-ray energy spectrum in shielding material to be useful for indirect nuclear material characterization. The signature deriving from the induced fission neutrons interacting with the shielding material was slightly elevated in polyethylene-shielding depleted uranium (DU), but was more evident in some characteristic peaks from the aluminum shielding surrounding DU.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 7872446 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1725-1732 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2017 |
Funding
Manuscript received July 1, 2016; revised December 7, 2016; accepted February 9, 2017. Date of publication March 6, 2017; date of current version July 14, 2017. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Grant 2012-DN-130-NF0001-02 and in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| U.S. Department of Homeland Security | 2012-DN-130-NF0001-02 |
| National Nuclear Security Administration | DE-AC52-07NA27344 |
Keywords
- Radiation detectors