Photo-fission-based scanners of nuclear materials

Photo-fission is a key physical phenomenon used these days to monitor cargo containers at state border checkpoints to detect illegal trafficking of nuclear materials. The fission is induced by beam of high energy electrons (of energy up to 9 MeV) generated by a linear accelerator. Nuclei that undergo the fission emit (promptly  and/or with some delay) some neutrons and/or gamma rays. In particular, the technique is capable to detect nuclear waste.

Some methods used to detect radiation emitted in result of photo-fission will be presented. Special attention will be given to state-of-the-art detectors of prompt neutrons based on scintillators containing ¹⁹F. They detect neutrons using the threshold activation technique.

All interested are invited
Dr Jacek Rzadkiewicz
Dr Agnieszka Syntfeld-Każuch
Associate Professor Sławomir Wronka