Estimation of the performance of multiple active neutron interrogation signatures for detecting shielded HEU

A comprehensive modeling study has been carried out to evaluate the utility of multiple active neutron interrogation signatures for detecting shielded highly enriched uranium (HEU). The modeling effort focused on varying HEU masses from 1 kg to 20 kg; varying types of shields including cement, wood, polyethylene, aluminum, and steel; varying depths of the HEU in the shields, and varying engineered shields immediately surrounding the HEU including steel, lead, and cadmium. Neutron and gamma-ray signatures were the focus of the study and false negative detection probabilities versus measurement time were used as a performance metric. To facilitate comparisons among different approaches an automated method was developed to generate receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for different sets of model variables for multiple background count rate conditions. This paper summarizes results or the analysis, including laboratory benchmark comparisons between simulations and experiments.

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