Determining uranium ore concentrates and their calcination products via image classification of multiple magnifications

Abstract

Many tools, such as mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, ion chromatography, etc., are currently available to scientists investigating interdicted nuclear material. These tools provide an analysis of physical, chemical, or isotopic characteristics of the seized material to identify its origin. In this study, a novel technique that characterizes physical attributes is proposed to provide insight into the processing route of unknown uranium ore concentrates (UOCs) and their calcination products. In particular, this study focuses on the characteristics of the surface structure captured in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images at different magnification levels. Twelve common commercial processing routes of UOCs and their calcination products are investigated. Multiple-input single-output (MISO) convolution neural networks (CNNs) are implemented to differentiate the processing routes. The proposed technique can determine the processing route of a given sample in under a second running on a graphics processing unit (GPU) with an accuracy of more than 95%. The accuracy and speed of this proposed technique enable nuclear scientists to provide the preliminary identification results of interdicted material in a short time period. Furthermore, this proposed technique uses a predetermined set of magnifications, which in turn eliminates the human bias in selecting the magnification during the image acquisition process.