Explosives Detection Performance of -rays Interrogation for Robots and Vehicles

The performance of a explosives detection system based on the pulsed fast/thermal neutron analysis technique was assessed using Monte Carlo simulations. The aim was to develop and implement simulation methods, to support and advance the data analysis techniques of the characteristic -ray spectra, potentially leading to elemental characterization of innocuous objects using the full spectrum analysis (FSA) approach. Several different neutron based techniques are being studied for the detection of contraband substances in luggage and cargo containers. The pulsed neutron generator is easy to transport and radiation protection is only needed during analysis time. This paper discusses accelerator requirements for fast neutron transmission spectroscopy (FNTS), pulsed fast neutron analysis (PFNA), pulsed thermal neutron analysis (PTNA), fast neutron scattering analysis (FNSA), delayed fission analysis (DFA).