A novel technique to detect special nuclear material using cosmic rays

C Thomay,P Baesso,C Steer,C Vassallo,P Glaysher,S Quillin,D Cussans,S Robertson,J Davies,J Velthuis

doi:10.5194/gi-1-235-2012

Abstract

Abstract. Resistive plate chambers (RPCs) are widely used in high energy physics for both tracking and triggering purposes, due to their excellent time resolution, rate capability, and good spatial resolution. RPCs can be produced cost-effectively on large scales, are of rugged build, and have excellent detection efficiency for charged particles. Our group has successfully built a muon scattering tomography (MST) prototype, using 12 RPCs to obtain tracking information of muons going through a target volume of ∼ 50 cm × 50 cm × 70 cm, reconstructing both the incoming and outgoing muon tracks. The required spatial granularity is achieved by using 330 readout strips per RPC with 1.5 mm pitch. The RPCs have shown an efficiency above 99% and an estimated intrinsic resolution below 1.1 mm. Due to these qualities, RPCs serve as excellent candidates for usage in volcano radiography.

Highlights

Resistive plate chambers (RPCs) are currently widely used in high energy physics and astrophysics. Since their introduction in the early 1980s (Santonico and Cardarelli, 1981), they have undergone a constant evolution that led to several families of detectors, each of them characterized by specific features in terms of performance, operational mode and geometric setup of the detectors themselves (Fonte, 2002). All such families share the same principle of operation (Riegler and Lippmann, 2004) and favourable characteristics, which contribute to the rapid diffusion and acceptance of RPCs within the scientific community: low cost per unit area, high rate capability, ruggedness, high detection efficiency for minimum ionizing particles and excellent time resolution
RPCs are widely adopted by the high energy physics and astrophysics community, but their use outside these very specific fields is still somewhat limited
Both muon scattering tomography and volcano radiography could take advantage of this technology and of the knowledge developed by its application in experiments across the world

Summary

Introduction

Resistive plate chambers (RPCs) are currently widely used in high energy physics and astrophysics Since their introduction in the early 1980s (Santonico and Cardarelli, 1981), they have undergone a constant evolution that led to several families of detectors, each of them characterized by specific features in terms of performance, operational mode and geometric setup of the detectors themselves (Fonte, 2002). All such families share the same principle of operation (Riegler and Lippmann, 2004) and favourable characteristics, which contribute to the rapid diffusion and acceptance of RPCs within the scientific community: low cost per unit area, high rate capability, ruggedness, high detection efficiency for minimum ionizing particles and excellent time resolution. An example of such an application is muon scattering tomography (MST), in which cosmic muons are tracked before and after they penetrate a target volume (see Fig. 1)

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Conclusion