A portable neutron coincidence counter

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has designed and constructed a prototype portable neutron coincidence counter intended for use in a variety of applications, such as the verification and inspection of weapons components, safety measurements for novel and challenging situations, portable portal deployment to prevent the transportation of fissile materials, uranium enrichment measurements in hard-to-reach locations, waste assays for objects that cannot be measured by existing measurement systems, and decontamination and decommissioning. The counting system weighs less than 40 kg and is composed of parts each weighing no more than 5 kg. In addition, the counter`s design is sufficiently flexible to allow rapid, reliable assembly around containers of nearly arbitrary size and shape. The counter is able to discern the presence of 1 kg of weapons-grade plutonium within an ALR-8 (30-gal drum) in roughly 100 seconds and 10 g in roughly 1000 seconds. The counter`s electronics are also designed for maximum adaptability, allowing operation under a wide variety of circumstances, including exposure to gamma-ray fields of 1 R/h. This report provides a detailed review of the design and construction process. Finally, preliminary experimental measurements that confirm the performance capabilities of this counter are discussed. 6 refs., 18 figs., 3 tabs

Passive and Active Oxidation of Si(100) by Atomic Oxygen: A Theoretical Study of Possible Reaction Mechanisms

Reaction mechanisms for oxidation of the Si(100) surface by atomic oxygen were studied with high-level quantum mechanical methods in combination with a hybrid QM/MM (Quantum mechanics/Molecular Mechanics) method. Consistent with previous experimental and theoretical results, three structures, “back-bond”, “on-dimer”, and “dimer-bridge”, are found to be the most stable initial surface products for O adsorption (and in the formation of SiO2 films, i.e., passive oxidation). All of these structures have significant diradical character. In particular, the “dimer-bridge” is a singlet diradical. Although the ground state of the separated reactants, O+Si(100), is a triplet, once the O atom makes a chemical bond with the surface, the singlet potential energy surface is the ground state. With mild activation energy, these three surface products can be interconverted, illustrating the possibility of the thermal redistribution among the initial surface products. Two channels for SiO desorption (leading to etching, i.e., active oxidation) have been found, both of which start from the back-bond structure. These are referred to as the silicon-first (SF) and oxygen-first (OF) mechanisms. Both mechanisms require an 89.8 kcal/mol desorption barrier, in good agreement with the experimental estimates of 80−90 kcal/mol. “Secondary etching” channels occurring after initial etching may account for other lower experimental desorption barriers. The calculated 52.2 kcal/mol desorption barrier for one such secondary etching channel suggests that the great variation in reported experimental barriers for active oxidation may be due to these different active oxidation channels

Real-time dosimetry for boron-neutron capture therapy

Epithermal/thermal boron neutron-capture therapy (BNCT) is promising treatment method for malignant tumors. Because the doses and dose rates for medical therapeutic radiation are very close to the normal tissue tolerance, small errors in radiation delivery can result in harmful overdoses. A substantial need exists for a device that will monitor, in real time, the radiation dose being delivered to a patient. Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has developed a scintillating glass optical fiber that is sensitive to thermal neutrons. The small size of the fibers offers the possibility of in vivo dose monitoring at several points within the radiation field. The count rate of such detectors can approach 10 MHz because the lifetime of the cerium activator is fast. Fluxes typical of those in BNCT (i.e., 10{sup 9} n/cm{sup 2}/sec) may be measured because of this potentially high count rate and the small diameter of the fiber

Correlation of XANES features with the scintillation efficiencies of Ce doped alkaline earth lithium silicate glasses

Cerium-activated, lithium-silicate glasses are widely used as thermal neutron detectors because of their versatility, robustness and low cost. The glasses convert the energy of the neutrons to visible light pulses that may be counted. This process, scintillation, is generally thought to be composed of three steps: ionization, energy transfer, and luminescence. If defects are present, they can trap the excitations, altering the scintillation output. These features have been discussed previously. The presence of magnesium in these glasses increases scintillation efficiency, but as previously observed the effect drops by a factor greater than 2.5 with substitution through the series of alkaline earths. Here, cerium activated glasses of composition 20Li{sub 2}O{center_dot}15MO{center_dot}64.4SiO{sub 2}{center_dot}0.6Ce{sub 3}O{sub 3} (where m is Mg, Ca, Sr, or Ba) exhibit scintillation efficiencies that vary by more than a factor of 2.5 with the alkaline earth. Previous work has suggested a correlation between the microstructure of these glasses and scintillation efficiency. Measurements of the Ce L{sub III} x-ray absorption edge in the Mg, Ca and Sr glasses display a feature near the absorption edge that is suggestive of the presence of Ce{sup 4+}. The area of this peak is, in fact, correlated with the scintillation efficiency of the glass. The amount of Ce{sup 4+} indicated by the intensity of this feature is, however, too high to be a permanent population. The authors suspect that the feature is a transient phenomenon related to creation of Ce{sup 4+} and trapped electrons due to photoionization by the x-ray beam

Neutron methods for measuring {sup 235}U content in UF{sub 6} gas

In the United States and Russia, UF{sub 6} gas streams of highly enriched uranium and lower enrichment uranium am being blended to reduce the stockpile of the highly enriched material. The resultant uranium is no longer useful for weapons, but is suitable as fuel for nuclear reactors. A method to verify the blending of high- and low-enrichment uranium was developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Research and Development (NN-20). In the United States, blending occurs at the U.S. Department of Energy`s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant located near Portsmouth, Ohio. In Russia, the blending takes place at Novouralsk. The United States is purchasing the blended product produced in Russia in a program to reduce the availability of enriched uranium that can be used for weapons production. Monitoring the {sup 235}U mass flux of the input stream having the highly enriched uranium will provide confidence that high-enrichment uranium is being consumed in the blending process, and monitoring the output stream will provide an on-line measure of the {sup 235}U in the mixed product. The Portsmouth plant is a potential test facility for non-destructive technology to monitor blending. In addition, monitoring the blending at Portsmouth can support International Atomic Energy Agency activities on controlling and reducing enriched uranium stockpiles

Direct fast neutron detection: A status report

This report describes the status of efforts to develop direct fast-neutron detection via proton recoil within plastic scintillator. Since recording proton recoil events is of little practical use without a means to discriminate effectively against gamma-ray interactions, the present effort is concentrated on demonstrating a method that distinguishes between pulse types. The proposed method exploits the different pulse shapes that are to be expected primarily on the basis of the slower speed of the recoiling fission neutrons. Should this effort ultimately prove successful, the resulting novel technology will have the potential to significantly lower cost and increase capability for a number of critical neutron-detection applications. Considerable progress has been made toward a clear and compelling demonstration of this new technique. An exhaustive theoretical and numerical investigation of the method has been completed. The authors have been able to better understand the laboratory results and estimate the performance that could ultimately be achieved using the proposed technique. They have assessed the performance of a number of different algorithms for discriminating between neutron and gamma ray events. The results of this assessment will be critical when the construction of low-cost, field-portable neutron detectors becomes necessary. Finally, a laboratory effort to realize effective discrimination is well underway and has resulted in partial success

Fast Computation of L p Norm-Based Specialization Distances between Bodies of Evidence

International audienceIn a recent paper [1], we introduced a new family of evidential distances in the framework of belief functions. Using specialization matrices as a representation of bodies of evidence, an evidential distance can be obtained by computing the norm of the difference of these matrices. Any matrix norm can be thus used to define a full metric. In particular, it has been shown that the $L^1$ norm-based specialization distance has nice properties. This distance takes into account the structure of focal elements and has a consistent behavior with respect to the conjunctive combination rule. However, if the frame of discernment on which the problem is defined has $n$ elements, then a specialization matrix size is $2^n \times 2^n$. The straightforward formula for computing a specialization distance involves a matrix product which can be consequently highly time consuming. In this article, several faster computation methods are provided for $L^p$ norm-based specialization distances. These methods are proposed for special kinds of mass functions as well as for the general case