Allocation and identification of explosives and illicit materials in cargo containers by neutron interrogation

Abstract EN

Neutron techniques based on using fast neutrons from Pu-α-Be source to allocate and identify explosives and illicit materials in cargo containers are presented and discussed.

The hidden objects positions are allocated by a fast neutron radiography technique where the transmitted fast neutron count rates were used to construct a 2D image for the hidden object.

The transmitted fast neutrons were measured by a fast neutron/gamma ray spectrometer which applies a pulse shape discrimination method to reject the undesired gamma pulses.

The identification of the suspected objects initially detected by the radiographical technique was achieved by an identification technique based on elemental analysis by neutron activation.

For the latter, the emitted gamma-ray spectrum emitted from the suspected objects were measured a gamma-ray spectrometer applies NaI(Tl) detector.

The results of radiography measurements are presented in the form of displayed images and compared with their counterparts obtained by gamma-ray radiography.

The measured gamma-ray spectra were analyzed to show the gamma energy lines corresponding to the elements of which the suspected object is formed.