Scintillation Detector with Fast-Neutron/Gamma ray Discrimination

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear missiles and “dirty bombs” are a serious threat in the world today and especially to the well-being of the United States. Preventing the spread of these nuclear weapons has reached a state of heightened urgency in recent years, more so since the events on September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. The presence of nuclear weapons can be detected on the basis of the gamma ray and neutron signatures of radioactive isotopes used in nuclear weapons, as for example uranium and plutonium. At present, there is an urgent need for an efficient, solid state detection system that allows for the detection of fast and slow neutrons with the ability to discriminate between neutron with energies En > 1 eV and gamma ray events. Discrimination is critical because gamma-rays are a very common background in a neutron detection environment during the monitoring of special nuclear materials (SNM). The goal of the proposed effort is to investigate new scintillators that are capable of efficient thermal and fast neutron detection while providing effective neutron/gamma-ray discrimination. The discrimination between neutron and gamma-ray events may be based on pulse shape as well as pulse height analysis.