Detection of nuclear threats in large cargo containers

Abstract

In 2003 scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California at Berkeley undertook a collaborative effort. The goal of this collaboration is to develop a concept for an active neutron interrogation system that can detect small masses of contraband fissile material in intermodal cargo containers--roughly five kg of highly-enriched-uranium or one kg of plutonium--even when well shielded by thick cargo. It is essential that implementation of the concept be reliable and has low false-positive and false-negative error rates. Interrogation must also be rapid to avoid interruption of commerce; analysis must be completed in minutes. This document summarizes that effort to date and was drawn, with the exception of minor editing, from the summary in Ref. 1.