| Issue |
EPJ Web Conf.
Volume 288, 2023
ANIMMA 2023 – Advancements in Nuclear Instrumentation Measurement Methods and their Applications
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 06004 | |
| Number of page(s) | 8 | |
| Section | Nuclear Safeguards, Homeland Security and CBRN | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202328806004 | |
| Published online | 21 November 2023 | |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202328806004
Development of a new method for the detection of illicit materials based on the Active Photon Interrogation Method and photo-neutron spectrometry
Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, List, Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel (LNE-LNHB) F91120, Palaiseau, France
* clement.besnardvauterin@cea.fr
Published online: 21 November 2023
The detection of illicit materials is a critical task in the field of homeland security, as international trade has contributed to the increase of smuggling activities. Nonintrusive on-site inspections are crucial in this context, but the current active interrogation methods have limitations. Neutron-induced reactions have been used, but the measurement of gamma spectra is complex due to background noise. Active photon interrogation methods have also been overlooked but they are currently limited to actinides detection using photo-fission reactions. This work presents a novel method for the detection of illicit materials based on active photon interrogation and photo-neutron spectrometry. This approach extends the application of active photon interrogation by including the detection of conventional explosives, narcotics, and chemical weapons based on the use photo-nuclear reactions to determine the content of light elements such as nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Monte-Carlo codes are the main tool used to simulate this process for the application need. However, because of the lack in the present literature of measured neutron spectra, the experimental validation of the simulations is not straight forward. At present, benchmarking the Monte-Carlo codes seems to be the sole option for testing their ability to accurately simulate photo-neutron production and spectra for the nuclear reactions of interest. Simultaneously, we designed a test bench based on a linear accelerator to generate photons, induce photonuclear reactions, and acquire photo-neutron spectra. This study on the fundamental aspects of photo-neutron production lays the groundwork for a promising new detection method for illicit materials.
Key words: Homeland security / neutron spectrometry / photonuclear / photo-neutron / Monte Carlo simulation / CBRNE
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2023
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.