Radioscopic inspection of cargo containers with megavoltage energy barriers

Abstract

To perform the inspection of cargo containers the radioscopic screening is performed by switching between 6 and 9 MeV of boundary energies as rapidly as 200 times per second and measuring the penetration levels in the contents of cargo. This technology facilitates the material identification via the analyses of the ratios of signals obtained at nominal and dual energies, which are 6 and 9 MeV, respectively. The techniques are developed for (a) visualizing the contents to produce an image suitable for fast inspection by a human operator, and for (b) prompting the custom personnel about the location of suspicious objects. Specifically, nuclear materials are of interest. The experiments have been conducted with Linatron K9 device designed by Varian Security and Inspection Products. The capabilities are demonstrated for detection of objects of interests for the steel shields of 10 inches of thickness.