TITLE:
Multi-Energy Gamma-Ray Attenuations for Non-Destructive Detection of Hazardous Materials
AUTHORS:
Kaylyn Olshanoski, Chary Rangacharyulu
KEYWORDS:
Non-Destructive Detection, Multi-Energy Photons, Radioactive Sources, Intensity Measurements, Safety and Security, XCOM Calculations
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Modern Physics,
Vol.13 No.1,
January
26,
2022
ABSTRACT: We present a non-destructive method (NDM) to identify minute quantities of high atomic number (Z) elements in containers such as passenger baggage, goods carrying transport trucks, and environmental samples. This method relies on the fact that photon attenuation varies with its energy and properties of the absorbing medium. Low-energy gamma-ray intensity loss is sensitive to the atomic number of the absorbing medium, while that of higher-energies vary with the density of the medium. To verify the usefulness of this feature for NDM, we carried out simultaneous measurements of intensities of multiple gamma rays of energies 81 to 1408 keV emitted by sources 133Ba (half-life = 10.55 y) and 152Eu (half-life = 13.52 y). By this arrangement, we could detect minute quantities of lead and copper in a bulk medium from energy dependent gamma-ray attenuations. It seems that this method will offer a reliable, low-cost, low-maintenance alternative to X-ray or accelerator-based techniques for the NDM of high-Z materials such as mercury, lead, uranium, and transuranic elements etc.