Neutron resonance fission neutron analysis for nondestructive fissile material assay

We propose neutron resonance fission neutron analysis (NRFNA), an active nondestructive assay (NDA) technique, to improve the capability to identify and quantify a small amount of fissile material in a sample. NRFNA uses pulsed neutrons to induce fission reactions in the sample. Fission neutrons are detected by a neutron-gamma pulse shape discrimination (PSD) scintillation detector with time-of-flight (TOF) technique. The obtained nuclide-specific resonance peaks in the neutron energy spectrum provide information to identify and quantify a fissile material in the sample. The possibility of using PSD for NRFNA was confirmed through a test experiment using a natural uranium sample. We successfully observed the resonance peaks from 235U(n,f) reaction and showed that NRFNA would be useful for measuring a small amount of fissile material in a sample.