Identification of High-Z Materials With Photoneutrons Driven by a Low-Energy Electron Linear Accelerator

Contraband-detection systems can use X-rays and photoneutrons delivered from the same 7-MeV electron linear accelerator (e-LINAC) to stimulate and extract information from inspected materials. The X-ray attenuation information is used to measure the mass thickness, which is combined with the photone...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 64; no. 7; pp. 1719 - 1724
Main Authors Yang, Yigang, Zhang, Zhi, Chen, Huaibi, Li, Yulan, Li, Yuanjing
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.07.2017
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Attenuation
Beta-delayed neutron
Contraband
Converters
Energy consumption
Feasibility studies
fissile material
Fission
Fissionable materials
Heavy metals
Information processing
Isotopes
Linear accelerators
Metals
neutron resonance
Neutrons
Nuclear weapons
Organic materials
photoneutron
Photoneutrons
Photonics
Polyethylene
Polyethylenes
Radiation detectors
X-rays
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Summary:Contraband-detection systems can use X-rays and photoneutrons delivered from the same 7-MeV electron linear accelerator (e-LINAC) to stimulate and extract information from inspected materials. The X-ray attenuation information is used to measure the mass thickness, which is combined with the photoneutron attenuation information to categorize inspected materials as common organic materials, metals, and heavy metals. Once a heavy metal is found, the beta-delayed neutrons stimulated by the (γ,fission) reaction are measured by a polyethylene-moderated 3 He counter to clarify if the material is fissile. The presence of neutron events 2000 μs after the X-ray pulse confirms the existence of the fissile material. The isotopes in the material are then identified using the time-of-flight method to analyze the resonant attenuation of the fissile material to the 10 -1 -10 2 eV photoneutrons emitted from and thermalized by the D 2 O photonto-neutron convertor, which converts X-rays to photoneutrons. Eight high-Z simulants are tested to confirm the feasibility of identifying the isotopes from the photoneutron resonance. The underlying principles and experimental results are discussed.
ISSN:0018-9499
1558-1578
DOI:10.1109/TNS.2016.2638451