NEUTRON INTERROGATION TO IDENTIFY CHEMICAL-ELEMENTS WITH AN ION-TUBE NEUTRON SOURCE (INS)

A non-destructive analysis technique using a portable, electric ion-tu be neutron source (INS) and gamma ray detector has been used to identi fy the key constituent elements in a number of sealed munitions, and f rom the elemental makeup, infer the types of agent within each. The hi gh energy (14 MeV) and pulsed character of the neutron flux from an IN S provide a method of measuring, quantitatively, the oxygen, carbon, a nd fluorine content of materials in closed containers, as well as the other constituents that can be measured with low-energy neutron probes . The broad range of elements that can be quantitatively measured with INS-based instruments provides a capability of verifying common munit ion fills; it provides the greatest specificity of any portable neutro n-based technique for determining the full matrix of chemical elements in completely unrestricted sample scenarios. The specific capability of quantifying the carbon and oxygen content of materials should lead to a fast screening technique which, can discriminate very quickly bet ween high-explosive and chemical agent-filled containers.