Multiple Monoenergetic Gamma Radiography (MMGR) using compact superconducting cyclotron

Smuggling of special nuclear materials (SNM) and nuclear devices through borders and ports of entry constitutes a major risk to global security. Reliable technologies are imperative for screening the flow of commerce for the presence of high-Z materials such as uranium and plutonium. This thesis presents an experimental proof-of-concept system using low energy (p, p2) nuclear reactions to generate monoenergetic photons to provide a means to measure the areal density and the effective atomic number (Zeff) of an object with accuracy that surpasses existing interrogation methods and other major deployed systems. This radiography system was designed using an ION-12SC compact superconducting 12 MeV proton cyclotron. Using a specially designed hybrid graphite water target, monoenergetic photons were generated at 4.4, 6.1, 6.9, and 7.1 MeV from (p, p2) nuclear reactions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Lee, Hin Yeung.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Areg Danagoulian.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127312

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127312