Neutron-based land mine detection system development

This is the final report of a one-year, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The goal of this project was to examine the feasibility of developing a land mine detection system that can detect nonmetallic (plastic) mines using the detection and analysis of prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA). The authors approached this study by first carrying out a review of other nonmetallic land mine detection methods for comparison with the PGNAA concept. They reviewed issues associated with detecting and recording the return gamma signal resulting from neutrons interacting with high explosive in mines and they examined two neutron source technologies that have been under development at Los Alamos for the past several years for possible application to a PGNAA system. A major advantage of the PGNAA approach is it`s ability to discriminate detection speed and need for close proximity. The authors identified approaches to solving these problems through development of improved neutron sources and detection sensors