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Presentation to be presented during the NNSA Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP) Nuclear Security Science and Technology Consortium (NSSTC) seminar series.
This is a presentation for the 2022 AMS Technical Exchange at the North Las Vegas Airport
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This is a technical presentation that does not take into account contractual limitations or obligations under the Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level Radioactive Waste (Standard Contract) (10 CFR Part 961). For example, under the provisions of the Standard Contract, spent nuclear fuel in multi-assembly canisters is not an acceptable waste form, absent a mutually agreed to contract amendment.
The Partnership for Radiation Studies (PaRS) consortium is a collaboration between two minority-serving institutions and two U.S. national laboratories. The five-year consortium is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and it aims enhance workforce of underrepresented students in STEM disciplines. PaRS’ long-term goal is to train students for their prospective hiring in DOE laboratories and sites. As one of the two integral national laboratory partners, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is playing an integral role in achieving this goal via pertinent lectures, seminars, hands-on trainings, and outreach activities. This paper summarizes PNNL’s key activities and initiatives to train the next generation of underrepresented students in STEM disciplines.
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Various technologies presented herein relate to a method and equipment for detecting both airborne radioisotope and molecular effluent gases. Multi-Axis Sensing can be conducted by utilizing a pressurized MOF sorbent, such as a scintillating Metal-Organic Frameworks (S-MOFs). These MOFs are crystalline nanoporous materials that have synthetic versatility that allow adjustment of pore size, chemical environment, and luminescence properties. A method for detecting an analyte in a fluid sample is provided that comprises: loading a sorbent with a sample fluid, wherein the sorbent comprises a MOF material; pressurizing the sample fluid to increase the fluid in the sorbent thereby making a pressurized sorbent; and detecting ionizing radiation or a chemical property of the analyte in the pressurized sorbent.
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Report outlines the methodology used to establish a background calibration line for AMS-East operations at Joint Base Andrews. The results provide a general isotopic characterization of the soil within the calibration line at Joint Base Andrews, and the expected terrestrial exposure rate which can be used to aerial measuring.
The detection and accurate identification of nuclear material is critical to the advancement of national security, medical technology, and environmental prosperity. The gold standard solid-state detector HPGe, suffers from high manufacturing costs and the need to operate at cryogenic temperatures to ensure reliable energy resolution. The other most common solid-state detector, cadmium zinc telluride (CZT), has the ability to operate at room temperature, but the grow process results in impurities decreasing performance. In this paper we have developed a continuous flow synthesis able to mass produce targeted size cadmium selenide quantum dots. The implementation of these QDs in QD/MEH-PPV composites has the ability to rival HPGe energy resolution at room temperature.
Detection of X- and gamma-rays is essential to a wide range of applications from medical imaging to high energy physics, astronomy, and homeland security. Cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) is the most widely used material for room-temperature detector applications and has been fulfilling the requirements for growing detection demands over the last three decades. However, CZT still suffers from the presence of a high density of performance-limiting defects, such as sub-grain boundary networks and Te inclusions. Cadmium zinc telluride selenide (CZTS) is an emerging material with compelling properties that mitigate some of the long-standing issues seen in CZT. This new quaternary is free from sub-grain boundary networks and possesses very few Te inclusions. In addition, the material offers a high degree of compositional homogeneity. The advancement of CZTS has accelerated through investigations of the material properties and virtual Frisch-grid (VFG) detector performance. The excellent material quality with highly reduced performance-limiting defects elevates the importance of CZTS as a potential replacement to CZT at a substantially lower cost.
Environmental screening of gamma radiation consists of detecting weak nuisance and anomaly signal in the presence of strong and highly varying background. In a typical scenario, a mobile detector-spectrometer continuously measures gamma radiation spectra in short, e.g., one-second, signal acquisition intervals. In principle, gamma radiation sources can be detected and identified by their unique spectral lines. However, detecting sources from data measured in a search scenario is difficult due to the highly varying background because of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), and low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of spectral signal measured during one-second acquisition intervals. In recent prior work, we have developed a Hopfield Neural Network (HNN) in conjunction with an image processing algorithm to detect a weak signal anomaly hidden among the highly fluctuating background spectra. The objective of this work is to explore quantum computing methods to increase the speed of HNN. The approach is based on the Grover’s search algorithm in conjunction with a 3-SAT problem formalism. The Grover’s algorithm is implemented on a quantum computing simulator using Qiskit software. Performance of HNN algorithm is benchmarked using search data from an environmental screening campaign, where the anomaly is a subset of measurements containing a 137 Cs source. Results indicate that using Grover’s algorithm on a quantum simulator reduces runtime of HNN by two orders of magnitude.
Diamond diode-based devices are configured to convert radiation energy into electrical current, useable for sensing (i.e., detection) or delivery to a load (i.e., energy harvesting). A diode-based detector includes an intrinsic diamond layer arranged between p-type diamond and n-type diamond layers, with the detector further including at least one of (i) a boron containing layer arranged proximate to the n-type and/or the intrinsic diamond layers, or (ii) an intrinsic diamond layer thickness in a range of 10 nm to 300 microns. A diode-based detector may be operated in a non-forward biased state, with a circuit used to transmit a current pulse in a forward bias direction to reset a detection state of the detector. An energy harvesting device may include at least one p-i-n stack (including an intrinsic diamond layer between p-type diamond and n-type diamond layers), with a radioisotope source arranged proximate to the at least one p-i-n stack.
Abstract Current- and next-generation gravitational-wave observatories may reveal new, ultralight bosons. Through the superradiance process, these theoretical particle candidates can form clouds around astrophysical black holes and result in detectable gravitational-wave radiation. In the absence of detections, constraints—contingent on astrophysical assumptions—have been derived using LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data on boson masses. However, the searches for ultralight scalars to date have not adequately considered self-interactions between particles. Self-interactions that significantly alter superradiance dynamics are generically present for many scalar models, including axion-like dark matter candidates and string axions. We implement the most complete treatment of particle self-interactions available to determine the gravitational-wave signatures expected from superradiant scalar clouds and revisit the constraints obtained in a past gravitational-wave search targeting the black hole in Cygnus X-1. We also project the reach of next-generation gravitational-wave observatories to scalar particle parameter space in the mass-coupling plane. We find that while proposed observatories have insufficient reach to self-interactions that can halt black hole spin-down, next-generation observatories are essential for expanding the search beyond gravitational parameter space and can reach a mass and interaction scale of ∼ 10 − 13 –10 −12 eV / c 2 and ≳ 10 17 GeV, respectively.
We present an apparatus for detection of cyclotron radiation yielding a frequency-based β ± kinetic energy determination in the 5 keV to 2.1 MeV range, characteristic of nuclear β decays. The cyclotron frequency of the radiating β particles in a magnetic field is used to determine the β energy precisely. Our work establishes the foundation to apply the cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy (CRES) technique, developed by the Project 8 Collaboration, far beyond the 18-keV tritium endpoint region. We report initial measurements of β – ’s from 6 He and β + ’s from 19 Ne decays to demonstrate the broadband response of our detection system and assess potential systematic uncertainties for β spectroscopy over the full (MeV) energy range. To our knowledge, this is the first direct observation of cyclotron radiation from individual highly relativistic β’s in a waveguide. Furthermore, this work establishes the application of CRES to a variety of nuclei, opening its reach to searches for new physics beyond the TeV scale via precision β-decay measurements.
Thermography detects mid-infrared radiation from surfaces based on the Stefan-Boltzmann law, mapping surface temperatures and potentially revealing subsurface thermal activity. Recent developments offer an alternative strategy to traditional camera-based improvements: a thermal imaging sensitizer (TIS) coating whose emissivity increases sharply with local temperature, amplifying small thermal variations into high-contrast signals. Existing TIS structures are nanofabricated solid membranes and face significant challenges in fabrication complexity. Here, in this study, we present a solution-processed, liquid form of TIS, termed temperature-adaptive radiative paint (TARP), to address these limitations. TARP offers drastically reduced fabrication costs, scalability to large areas, applicability to curved surfaces, and an extended operating temperature range, while maintaining the function of temperature amplification. Application of TARP enhances small temperature contrast by more than 3 times, substantially improving ambient thermography and enabling broader applications such as detection of structural defects and hot spots in electronic components.