Abstract for IPRD13
June 30, 2013
Advanced Muon Imaging Techniques and Applications
Konstantin Borozdin, Christopher Morris, John Perry, Jeff Bacon (all - Los Alamos National
Laboratory), Cas Milner (Southern Methodist University), Haruo Miyadera (Toshiba)
During the last decade our team at Los Alamos has been developing muon imaging techniques for
different applications. Cosmic-ray muons present ubiquitous, free source of high energy-charged
particles raining everywhere on the earth at a rate of about 104 muons/min/m2. Cosmic ray muon
scattering measurements provide a method for imaging the internal structure of objects using the
information contained in the cosmic ray flux. The use of the signal from Coulomb scattering enables
three-dimensional imaging of complex scenes with high sensitivity to objects composed of materials
with high atomic charge (Z). This technique is therefore uniquely suitable for detecting and measuring
the properties of special nuclear materials. Scattering muon radiography has been commercialized as a
cargo scanning system. The first full-scale operational system for sea container scanning has been
successfully deployed at Freeport Container Port in the Bahamas in August 2012.
Following the nuclear accident at Fukushima we have adapted our muon imaging technique for its use
for imaging of nuclear reactor cores. In this case we propose to use near horizontal muon flux to
determine status of damaged cores of Fukushima reactors. We performed extensive Monte Carlo
modeling of expected results, as well as experimental measurements at different venues to demonstrate
efficiency of our technique. To further improve imaging capabilities and material discrimination of
muon imaging we propose to combine scattering signal with muon transmission measurements. We
demonstrated this approach experimentally using our mini-muon tracker (MMT) detectors. During the
summer of 2013 we plan to perform demonstration measurements at Toshiba nuclear critical assembly
(NCA). We expect to report results of these measurements at Siena.
We can further improve image resolution and material discrimination provided by our detector if we use
less-scattering carbon fiber tubes instead of aluminum tubes used for MMT. In addition to image quality
improvement, this also makes our detectors more portable and more attractive for easy deployment. As a
result of these improvements we can expand our techniques to new applications, such as inspection of
internal structure of the historical landmark buildings, including material densities, voids, and the iron
and wood reinforcing members. These data can be used to refine the simulation studies, resulting in
more accurate predictions and refined design of proposed support structures. As a showcase for this
application we have chosen to focus on a particular building - the cupola of La Cattedrale di Santa
Maria del Fiore (Il Duomo) in Florence, Italy. Our interest to this particular building was inspired by
recent workshop at Los Alamos devoted specifically to its survival against earthquakes. Addressing the
needs of this unique and culturally important structure, we will also extend and demonstrate cosmic-ray
muon imaging techniques as a viable and unique technology for surveying large, low-contrast structures.
Combining muon tracking with secondary neutron and gamma-detectors we can image special nuclear
materials based on muon-induced fission signal. We performed a series of experiments with different
secondary detectors, as well as extensive modeling with MCPN6 and GEANT4 to demonstrate and
evaluate this method for treaty verification applications. Using scattering and transmission signal
together we demonstrate material discrimination for wide range of materials.