Experimental demonstration and modeling of a robotic neutron detector with spectral and directional sensitivity for treaty verification

Eric Lepowsky, Moritz Kütt, Soha Aslam, Henry Fetsch, Steven Snell, Alexander Glaser, Robert J. Goldston

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

International safeguards and arms control agreements often require labor-intensive, intrusive onsite inspections to perform verification tasks. The ability to localize a neutron source and/or characterize a neutron field may be imperative for identifying anomalies. We are interested in the role of autonomous mobile robots, which, if designed properly, may be more effective and efficient and less intrusive than their human counterparts. Toward developing such a capability, we have constructed the N-SpecDir Bot, comprised of three boron-coated straw detectors azimuthally-distributed within a cylinder of high-density polyethylene, which is mounted on an omni-directional robotic platform. Our N-SpecDir Bot is specifically designed to provide spectral and directional sensitivity, in addition to gross counts, by utilizing the signals from the three detectors. The detection system has been extensively characterized by MCNP modeling, which has been benchmarked to experiments conducted at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. We demonstrate the spectral and directional sensitivity experimentally and in simulation, and provide a simple yet robust method for directional measurements.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

Keywords

  • Directional sensitivity
  • Neutron detection
  • Nuclear safeguards
  • Robotic detector
  • Spectral sensitivity
  • Treaty verification

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