Detection of Explosives by Using a Neutron Source Based on a Proton Linac

TL;DR

This paper proposes using a proton LINAC as a neutron source for explosive detection via neutron capture on nitrogen, demonstrating a feasible setup with specific parameters capable of detecting small explosive objects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel neutron source setup based on a proton LINAC with defined parameters for effective explosive detection.

Findings

Neutron source intensity reaches 10^12 neutrons/sec.

Detection of tennis ball-sized explosives is feasible.

Proton LINAC parameters are suitable for practical applications.

Abstract

The paper considers an opportunity of detecting explosives by using radiation capture of a neutron with nitrogen nucleus. Proton LINAC is offered as the neutron source with the following parameters: proton energy five Mega electron Volts , beam pulse current one and seven-tenths milliampere, duration of the current pulse two hundreds microseconds, repetition rate fifty Hertz. The reaction in which neutrons are formed is lithium (p,n) beryllium. It is shown that this neutron source will have the intensity of ten to the twelfth degree neutron per second that will allow one to detect explosives of the size of a tennis ball.