[en] First and foremost, radioactive sources are both useful and cost effective. If a technology can't be utilized in an effective manner, it won't be useful, no matter how clever and elegant it is. Secondly, there are safety and proliferation concerns that must be addressed. Accidents, contamination, dirty bombs, etc., all represent real concerns. A single incident can impact the cost of all uses. These issues and regulations devised to reduce these risks are driving up the costs and lowering efficiency. An alternative would be the accelerator based option, which is nothing new, it has been around for decades. Using accelerator technologies to produce radiation will address the issues I raise by limiting the production of radiation to only those times when a switch has been flipped. Producing radiation that way has one main advantage over the use of radioactive sources. When the switch is off, there is no radiation. Making instruments that are doubly fail-safe is straightforward. Issues associated with radiation safety during transport and storage disappear. There are also minimal issues of disposal and tracking of materials. There is very little potential for diverting a transportable radiography machine or portable neutron generator for nefarious uses. There is a need to carefully monitor the balance between the increasing number of radioactive sources in use, increasing concern for their location and condition, and the cost of employing radiation generators. In many cases there will be a natural progression away from using sources towards the use of radiation generators. Another key factor that would influence this balance is if an accident and or misuse of radioactive sources were to occur. The costs of dealing with sources would rapidly escalate, and would likely tip the balance sooner

[en] As radiation detection in the interest of national security becomes increasingly commonplace, inevitable questions arise concerning the interpretation of data from handheld radioisotope identifiers (RIIDs). Field elements typically require fast answers to provide an effective defense and to minimize the impact on legitimate movement of people and goods. To support this need, on-call experts at Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories cooperate in resolving radiation alarms rapidly and accurately. We present an overview, describe the work in progress to improve capabilities, and report on some of the lessons learned

[en] The nuclear fuel cycle of the future will present us with new safeguards challenges. In this paper we will discuss several new technologies developed at LLNL that could be applied to safeguards. These are: fast neutron counting with list mode data acquisition, superconducting high resolution gamma spectrometer, compact solid state thermal neutron detectors, and a spectroscopic 3D gamma-ray imager with laser range scanner. We will discuss a new segmented liquid scintillator multiplicity counter with nanosecond timing, which has 10^-5 discrimination of neutrons and gamma-rays above 500 keV. Used passively, this fast neutron counter can detect isolated fission chain bursts in the presence of high backgrounds, such as in storage areas or where the signal is dominated by (alpha,n) or spontaneous fission backgrounds. It will be useful in quantifying total fissile mass. Used actively, in conjunction with 60-keV neutron interrogation to induce fission, it detects the high-energy fission neutrons and is blind to the interrogating beam. The 60keV beam energy selectively fissions ²³⁵U and ²³⁹Pu and not ²³⁸U or ²³²Th. This technology will be useful for higher count rate applications than traditional multiplicity counters. We will also discuss a superconducting high resolution gamma spectrometer or microcalorimeter for ultra-precise analysis of low-energy gamma rays and X-rays. Superconducting gamma-ray spectrometers offer an order of magnitude higher energy resolution than conventional high-purity germanium detectors. This increases the precision of isotope ratio measurements in complicated mixtures that are affected by line overlap. We have developed gamma-ray detectors based on superconducting Mo/Cu multilayer sensors and attached bulk Sn absorbers. They have, depending on design, achieved an energy resolution between 50 and 100 eV FWHM at 100 keV, with count rate capabilities between up to 100 counts/s per pixel. We have also developed refrigeration technology for user-friendly detector operation at 0.1K. The detector can greatly improve the precision of destructive analysis (DA) as well as nondestructive analysis. LLNL is currently develop configurable, real-time, low-power, compact, solid state neutron detection system for special nuclear materials neutron signature detection with 10% thermal neutron detection efficiency. This neutron detection system can be used for long term monitoring of nuclear material in storage, or it could be an added feature in a tag or seal. These neutron detection systems can also be used for detecting or monitoring neutron emissions in areas (e.g., under water, pipes, etc.) where there are complex scattering environments, no available power, and little or no human access. There are two configurations in the neutron detector, namely, ¹⁰B for thermal neutron and ^6,7LiF for higher energy neutrons, the ⁷Li is for normalization. Finally, we will discuss a spectroscopic 3D gamma-ray imager that, combined with a laser range scanner could be used for design information verification system and nuclear material accountability applications. The Compact Compton Imager (CCI) currently being developed by LLNL has the potential to greatly improve Materials Accountability through enabling an automatic, efficient and more accurate real-time holdup and material accumulation measurements in bulk facilities across the nuclear fuel cycle (enrichment, fuel fabrication, and reprocessing) for international safeguards. With this instrument, we have recently demonstrated unprecedented imaging resolution, sensitivity and field of view, as well as 3D imaging capability. These features combined with an excellent spectroscopic resolution, create an instrument with unique capability for automatically mapping nuclear materials. This system can also enhance the current technology for Design Information Verification

[en] 1s-2p Lyman α transitions in hydrogenic iron Fe²⁵⁺ have been observed from a beam-foil source in fourth-order diffraction off ADP 101 and PET 002 crystals, simultaneously with the n=2 to n=4 Balmer β transitions diffracted in first order. Calibration of the local dispersion relation of the spectrometer using Balmer β lines provides measurements of Lyman α wavelengths. The approach of fitting the full two-dimensional dispersion relation, including other members of Balmer and Lyman series, limits random and systematic correlation of parameters, and reveals a major systematic due to dynamical diffraction depth penetration into a curved crystal. The development of a theory of x-ray diffraction from mosaic crystals was necessary for the accurate interpretation of the experimental data. Photographic theory was also developed in the process of this research. Several systematics are discussed and quantified for the first time for these medium-Z QED comparisons. 2s-1s and 4f-2p satellites are explicitly investigated, and a dominant systematic is uncovered, which is due to the variable location of spectral emission downstream of the beam-foil target. 1s-2p_3/2, 1s-2p_1/2 iron Lamb shifts are measured to be 35 376±1900 cm^-1 and 35 953±1800 cm^-1. These agree with but lie higher than theory. This represents a 5.7% measurement of the hydrogenic 1s-2p_1/2 Lamb shift in iron. The technique also reports the iron 2p_3/2-2p_1/2 fine structure as 171 108 cm^-1±180 cm^-1, which represents a 51% measurement of the hydrogenic iron fine-structure Lamb shift, and reports measurements of secondary lines