Neutron Imaging Camera

Author

Son, Seunghee ; De Nolfo, Georgia A. ; Dion, M.P. ; Hunter, Stanley D. ; Guardala, Noel A.

Author_Institution

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

Oct. 30 2010-Nov. 6 2010

Firstpage

298

Lastpage

301

Abstract

We describe the Neutron Imaging Camera (NIC) being developed for the detection of special nuclear material by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and NSWC/Carderock. The NIC is a self-contained, robust, omnidirectional, and ³He-independent neutron detector based on the Three-Dimensional Track Imager (3-DTI) technology developed at GSFC for gamma-ray astrophysics applications. The 3-DTI, a large volume, gas, time-projection chamber, provides accurate, ~0.4 mm resolution, 3-D tracking of charged particles. The incident direction of fast neutrons, 0.1 MeV <;E_n <; 10 MeV, are reconstructed from the momenta and energies of the protons resulting from single and double (n, p) scatters in methane (CH₄). We present angular and energy resolution performance of the NIC derived from the field test at Ft. Monroe, VA in September 2010.

Keywords

helium-3 counters; neutron detection; time projection chambers; (n,p); 3-D charged particle tracking; ³He-independent neutron detector; Goddard Space Flight Center; NASA; energy resolution performance; gamma-ray astrophysics; neutron imaging camera; nuclear material detection; three-dimensional track imager technology; time-projection chamber; Anodes; Cathodes; Electron mobility; Ionization; Neutrons; Protons; Prototypes;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (NSS/MIC), 2010 IEEE

Conference_Location

Knoxville, TN

ISSN

1095-7863

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9106-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.2010.5873768

Filename

5873768