High-Fidelity Compton-Camera Simulations for Nonproliferation Applications

Year
2010
Author(s)
Marek Flaska - Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences
S. A. Pozzi - Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences
A, Gueorguiev - ICx Radiation
S.D. Clarke - Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences
G. Pausch - ICx Radiation Inc.
M. Ohmes - ICx Radiation Inc.
Alexis Poitrasson-Rivière - Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences
Abstract
An issue that is quickly becoming a large global concern is the safeguard and control of special nuclear material and other radioactive sources. To monitor the flow of these materials, research has been conducted on various types of detectors and detection systems. In this work, a Compton camera consisting of two 1-m by 1-m planar arrays of detectors (planes) has been investigated in different material configurations. Namely, PVT and CaF2 are considered for the scatter plane, and NaI and LaBr3 for the absorption plane. A large number of simulations, which include background contributions, have been performed using the MCNP-PoliMi code. The MCNP-PoliMi results were then processed using a specialized algorithm to obtain several quantities of interest, including energy spectra in the planes and back- projection images. Several measurement quantities suimplemented in the simulations to make them realistic.