Soldier Mounted Advanced Radiation Tracking (SMART) Detector

Abstract

Nuclear counter proliferation and nuclear material stewardship are critical international processes to maintaining safety and international balance. Monitoring, locating, and investigating special nuclear material is integral to both of these aims. Advanced radiation detection systems contribute to nuclear stockpile safekeeping and prevent unstable military and geopolitical environments. A Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is a common piece of equipment in the world of high energy physics but never used in the realm of nuclear security. A TPC is capable of providing a direction to a source of fast neutrons, a signature unique to spontaneous fission sources and Weapons Grade Plutonium specifically. The ability to collect direction and energy information from a single incident fast neutron is unique to the time projection chamber design. A time projection chamber’s unique data outputs can be used to create a fast neutron detector capable of robust data collection and special nuclear material localization. Previous time projection chamber experimentation and design proves the concept’s effectiveness in lab environments. The Soldier Mounted Advanced Radiation Tracking Detector design uses printed circuit board technology for significant improvements in the field uniformity, allowing for an unprecedented active volume to total volume ratio. The structural improvements will provide the end user with a portable fast neutron detector. Previous work has demonstrated through simulations that a portable TPC can provide a source location accurate to within 60 cm after a single pass with a closest approach of two meters. The improvements discussed in this work result in a single user being capable carrying a TPC while simultaneously collecting data to locate and characterize a 1kg source of WGPu on a single pass from two meters.