FY2011 Annual Report for the Actinide Isomer Detection Project

摘要

This project seeks to identify a new signature for actinide element detection in active interrogation. This technique works by exciting and identifying long-lived nuclear excited states (isomers) in the actinide isotopes and/or primary fission products. Observation of isomers in the fission products will provide a signature for fissile material. For the actinide isomers, the decay time and energy of the isomeric state is unique to a particular isotope, providing an unambiguous signature for SNM. This project entails isomer identification and characterization and neutron population studies. This document summarizes activities from its third year--completion of the isomer identification characterization experiments and initialization of the neutron population experiments.