CRIPT project preliminary results of imaging special nuclear materials with cosmic rays

High momentum cosmic ray muons are created in the upper layer of the atmosphere and can reach the surface of the earth. Because of their ability to penetrate matter, and the ubiquitous nature of this background radiation, cosmic ray muons have been successfully used to image the interior of structures. Recently, a number of groups have extended the concept of muon radiography to the tracking of individual muons as they enter and exit structures. In muon tomography, the incoming and outgoing directions are recorded for each muon, thereby producing a 3D image of the scattering location. A group in Canada has built a prototype system, called CRIPT (Cosmic Ray Inspection and Passive Tomography), which will be used to explore its performance in nuclear fuel management and its capability to support non-proliferation and safeguards. We report on the performance of the CRIPT system for the possible detection of illicit trafficking of Special Nuclear Material (SNM) such as uranium and plutonium.