Detecting Special Nuclear Material Using Muon-Induced Neutron Emission

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel muon-based imaging technique that detects special nuclear material by capturing neutrons from muon-induced fission, enabling non-invasive identification of dense nuclear objects with potential security applications.

Contribution

The study introduces a new method combining muon tracking and neutron detection to identify SNM, advancing non-invasive nuclear material detection techniques.

Findings

Successfully detected neutrons from muon-induced fission in SNM

Demonstrated imaging of SNM objects using laminography

Potential application in warhead verification scenarios

Abstract

The penetrating ability of cosmic ray muons makes them an attractive probe for imaging dense materials. Here, we describe experimental results from a new technique that uses neutrons generated by cosmic-ray muons to identify the presence of special nuclear material (SNM). Neutrons emitted from SNM are used to tag muon-induced fission events in actinides and laminography is used to form images of the stopping material. This technique allows the imaging of SNM-bearing objects tagged using muon tracking detectors located above or to the side of the objects, and may have potential applications in warhead verification scenarios. During the experiment described here we did not attempt to distinguish the type or grade of the SNM.