Spectroscopic fast neutron transmission imaging in a treaty verification setting

K. Ogren; J. Nattress; I. Jovanovic

doi:10.1063/1.5004698

Spectroscopic fast neutron transmission imaging in a treaty verification setting

K. Ogren, J. Nattress, I. Jovanovic

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Measurements of the geometric configuration of objects and their material composition are needed for nuclear treaty verification purposes. We experimentally demonstrate a simple method based on monoenergetic fast neutron transmission to realize crude imaging of the geometric configuration of special nuclear material, confirm its fissionable content, and obtain information on its approximate fissile mass. In the experiment, we used monoenergetic neutrons from D(d, n)³He and T(d, n)⁴He reactions and a linear array of liquid scintillation detectors to perform spectroscopic neutron imaging of up to 13.7 kg of highly enriched uranium in a spherical geometry. We also show an example of detection of material diversion and confirm the presence of fissionable material based on the measurement of high-energy prompt fission neutrons, including estimating the quantity of material from the comparison of measured and predicted fission neutron emission rate. The combination of crude imaging and fissionable material detection and quantification in a simple approach may be attractive in certain treaty verification scenarios.

Original language	English
Article number	015205
Journal	AIP Advances
Volume	8
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5004698
State	Published - Jan 1 2018
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors would like to thank Jesson Hutchinson of Los Alamos National Laboratory and John Mattingly of North Carolina State University for generous assistance with planning and executing the experiments at the Nevada National Security Site. This work has been supported by the Consortium for Verification Technology under Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration award number DE-NA0002534 and by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security award number 2014-DN-077-ARI078-02 and 2015-DN-077-ARI096.

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Homeland Security	2014-DN-077-ARI078-02, 2015-DN-077-ARI096
National Nuclear Security Administration	DE-NA0002534

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10.1063/1.5004698

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Spectroscopic fast neutron transmission imaging in a treaty verification setting

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