Detecting fissionable materials in a variety of shielding matrices via delayed gamma and neutron photofission signatures—Part 2: Experimental results

Successful detection of fissionable material contained in a variety of matrices was demonstrated by photon active interrogation of fissionable and inert target materials. Samples were irradiated with pulsed 15 MeV photons generated by a LINAC and tungsten electron/photon converter, operating at 15 Hz. Matrix materials included air (no matrix), wood, water, and lead. A unique dual mode gamma/neutron detector was used to acquire data from both fission product gamma and fission product neutron emission. Neutron emission was recorded by detecting the 478 keV capture gamma from the ¹⁰B (n,α)⁷Li reaction, generating a photopeak in the recorded gamma spectrum. Two signatures were found to correctly differentiate between the fissionable target (²³⁸U) and inert targets (lead, steel, air, and beryllium), with substantial differences in delayed gamma and neutron signatures for fissionable and inert materials in all cases. The signatures are simple to compute and are not significantly affected by system variations or interferences expected during cargo scanning.