TY - JOUR
T1 - Imaging Special Nuclear Material using a Handheld Dual Particle Imager
AU - Steinberger, William M.
AU - Ruch, Marc L.
AU - Giha, Nathan
AU - Fulvio, Angela Di
AU - Marleau, Peter
AU - Clarke, Shaun D.
AU - Pozzi, Sara A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded in-part by the Consortium for Verification Technology under Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration award number DE-NA0002534 and the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency under contract number HDTRA117C0046. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. This paper describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government. Approved for unlimited release, SAND2019-4336 J. Special thanks to Mr. Daniel Shy and Mr. Niral Shah who helped guide and discuss the development of the SBP and LM-MLEM algorithms. Special thanks to Dr. Jesson Hutchinson and Professor John Mattingly who organized and oversaw the measurement campaign.
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - A compact radiation imaging system capable of detecting, localizing, and characterizing special nuclear material (e.g. highly-enriched uranium, plutonium…) would be useful for national security missions involving inspection, emergency response, or war-fighters. Previously-designed radiation imaging systems have been large and bulky with significant portions of volume occupied by photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The prototype imaging system presented here uses silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) in place of PMTs because SiPMs are much more compact and operate at low power and voltage. The SiPMs are coupled to the ends of eight stilbene organic scintillators, which have an overall volume of 5.74 × 5.74 × 7.11 cm3. The prototype dual-particle imager’s capabilities were evaluated by performing measurements with a 252Cf source, a sphere of 4.5 kg of alpha-phase weapons-grade plutonium known as the BeRP ball, a 6 kg sphere of neptunium, and a canister of 3.4 kg of plutonium oxide (7% 240Pu and 93% 239Pu). These measurements demonstrate neutron spectroscopic capabilities, a neutron image resolution for a Watt spectrum of 9.65 ± 0.94° in the azimuthal direction and 22.59 ± 5.81° in the altitude direction, imaging of gamma rays using organic scintillators, and imaging of multiple sources in the same field of view.
AB - A compact radiation imaging system capable of detecting, localizing, and characterizing special nuclear material (e.g. highly-enriched uranium, plutonium…) would be useful for national security missions involving inspection, emergency response, or war-fighters. Previously-designed radiation imaging systems have been large and bulky with significant portions of volume occupied by photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The prototype imaging system presented here uses silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) in place of PMTs because SiPMs are much more compact and operate at low power and voltage. The SiPMs are coupled to the ends of eight stilbene organic scintillators, which have an overall volume of 5.74 × 5.74 × 7.11 cm3. The prototype dual-particle imager’s capabilities were evaluated by performing measurements with a 252Cf source, a sphere of 4.5 kg of alpha-phase weapons-grade plutonium known as the BeRP ball, a 6 kg sphere of neptunium, and a canister of 3.4 kg of plutonium oxide (7% 240Pu and 93% 239Pu). These measurements demonstrate neutron spectroscopic capabilities, a neutron image resolution for a Watt spectrum of 9.65 ± 0.94° in the azimuthal direction and 22.59 ± 5.81° in the altitude direction, imaging of gamma rays using organic scintillators, and imaging of multiple sources in the same field of view.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41598-020-58857-z
DO - 10.1038/s41598-020-58857-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 32024927
AN - SCOPUS:85079059282
VL - 10
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
IS - 1
M1 - 1855
ER -