Systems and methods for interrogating containers for special nuclear materials

Abstract

Methods and systems that utilize centrifugally tensioned metastable fluid detector (CTMFD) sensors and an external probing source to detect the presence of fissile and fissionable materials, including but not limited to special nuclear materials (SNMs), in containers. Such a method includes subjecting a container to probing with a fission-inducing radiation species that induces fission in an fissile or fissionable material, detecting fission neutrons emitted from the fissile or fissionable material with CTMFD sensors that each contain a detection fluid in which the fission neutrons induce cavitation in a centrifugally tensioned portion of the detection fluid. A threshold energy neutron analysis mode is then utilized to reject the radiation species and detect a fraction of the fission neutrons that have energies above a predetermined energy threshold determined by centrifugally-induced tension in the centrifugally tensioned portion of the detection fluid within each of the CTMFD sensors.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.