Fast- and thermal neutrons application to non-invasive illicit substances detection

This proposal concerns basic research towards its application in the effective and cheap detection of illicit substances and terrorist threats done with neutrons. In recent years, the demand for accurate detection and identification of hazardous substances has seen a significant rise. Thus, there is a growing need for mobile devices that allow for effective and rapid recognition of threats. In particular, there are no commercial solutions for effective monitoring of threats at sea, both for the of-shore infrastructure and ports. The methods commonly used so far in this domain are ineffective, expensive, and generate a lot of false alarms. Fast and non-destructive recognition may be provided with devices based on Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), which is however sensitive only to the elemental content of the tested objects and is not feasible to detect small amounts of illicit substances. A promising solution seems to be the NAA coupled with the neutron transmission (NT) and Compton scattering (NCS) measurements, which may soon be a breakthrough in this field of application. This proposal is a continuation of the feasibility studies of possible subsequent usage of several methods using the VESUVIO spectrometer and samples containing non-explosive substances with similar elemental content and structure as the common explosives and other substances contaminating, e.g. Baltic Sea to determine their signal characteristics and check the detection limits.