Active Neutron Interrogation of Non-Radiological Materials with the Nuclear Materials Identfication System

摘要

The Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), although primarily designed for analyzing special nuclear material, is capable of identifying nonradiological materials with a wide range of measurement techniques. This report demonstrates four different measurement methods, complementary to fast-neutron imaging, which can be used for material identification: DT transmission, DT scattering, californium transmission, and active time-tagged gamma spectroscopy. Each of the four techniques was used to evaluate how these methods can be used to identify four materials: aluminum, polyethylene, graphite, and G-10 epoxy. While such measurements have been performed individually in the past, in this project, all four measurements were performed on the same set of materials. The results of these measurements agree well with predicted results. In particular, the results of the active gamma spectroscopy measurements demonstrate the technique's applicability in a future version of NMIS which will incorporate passive and active gamma-ray spectroscopy. This system, designated as a fieldable NMIS (FNMIS), is under development by the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Verification.