Design of the rapidly relocatable tagged neutron inspection system of the C-BORD project

Abstract

Within the framework of the European H2020 C-BORD project, aiming at improving container inspection technologies, a compact and "Rapidly Relocatable Tagged Neutron Inspection System", called RRTNIS, is being developed taking into account past EURITRACK experience with a portal TNIS, and the latest technologies in terms of associated particle neutron generator and data acquisition electronics. A dedicated shield surrounding the neutron generator has been designed with MCNP6 to limit the size of the restricted area and the count rate on gamma detectors, which are located very close to the generator. This new design with "reflection" detectors only, i.e. in backscattering position, is indeed more efficient to detect suspect items, like explosives or illicit drugs, in bottom regions of the container, compared to EURITRACK detectors which were mainly located above the container. It also allows designing a relocatable system for different inspection sites like seaports, borders, or other checkpoints. Dose and count rate calculations are presented to determine the restricted area and facilitate the design of the data acquisition electronics, respectively.

Sea container inspection with tagged neutrons

“…To offer more operational flexibility, the EURITRACK design evolved towards the relocatable and compact C-BORD Rapidely Relocatable Tagged Neutron Inspection System (RRTNIS) shown in Figure 25, in which the neutron generator, the radiation shield, the detectors and the electronics are placed inside a container for outdoor operation, with temperature stabilization inside [60]. Fig.…”

“…Since the presence of a container also increases the detectors background due to backscattered neutrons and gamma rays, MCNP calculations have been performed to assess the total count rate taking into account both the polyethylene shield and the presence of a cargo container. In the worst case, consisting of a cargo container loaded with an iron cargo and a total neutron flux of 10 8 n/s, the count rate of the twenty 5 00 Â 5 00 Â 10 00 NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors with a 600 keV low-energy threshold is predicted to be 6.7 Â 10 5 s À1 [60]. With the same neutron flux, the total count rate of the four 3 00 Â 3 00 LaBr 3 scintillation detectors with a 100 keV threshold is expected to be about to be about 4.3 Â 10 4 s À1 .…”

“…MCNP6 simulation showing the random background brought by the polyethylene shield, with the effect of a 5 cm thick lead plate between detectors and polyethylene[60].…”

Demonstration of coded-aperture fast-neutron imaging based on Timepix detector

“…The fast-neutron imager prototype was tested three times with the same experimental setup by using the DT (14 MeV) neutron generator of the Rapidly Relocatable Tagged Neutron Inspection 270 System (RTNIS) used in the framework of the European H2020 C-BORD project [25] (see Fig. 11).…”

A Novel Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor for Soil Moisture Estimation over Large Areas

“…The digitizer is interfaced with a low-cost, low-power, embedded computer (Beaglebone Black). The software controlling the digitizer is an open-source, distributed data acquisition system, called ABCD [34,35] developed for the H2020 C-BORD project [36,37]. ABCD is employed to provide a continuous stream of data to a custom analysis system, based on the group's experience developed during the FP7 TAWARA_RTM project [38].…”