Retrospective characterization of special nuclear material in time and space

A 4.5 kg sphere of α-phase plutonium was subjected to passive imaging using optically stimulated luminescence dosimetry techniques via inverse square modeling under cylindrical symmetry around the dosimeter array. The results showed angular resolution in the localization capability close to 1° due to axial resolution below 1 cm. Radial resolution was much worse having an offset of 16 cm using only point source geometry estimates for the commercial dosimeters. Using MCNP™ to reconstruct the profile demonstrated a substantial improvement in reconstructing the relative response as opposed to assuming simple point source geometry. From this, an inverse solving approach known as DRAM was used to estimate source distribution in addition to location. These results are considered regarding their implications for nuclear nonproliferation to the extent they demonstrate potential to determine whether illicit nuclear material had historically been kept in any specific location or alternatively, whether such materials had not been kept in a location they were claimed to have been stored. Having measured the materials location and knowing the integrated measurement time then allows estimating amount of material via dose (or alternatively, knowing the assay could give storage time estimates). •This work demonstrates the ability to carry out spatial retrospective imaging of special nuclear material with OSL dosimetry.•The estimate of image angular resolution was found to be on the order of 1° using only inverse square modeling.•Complex radiation transport methods created a quality estimate for the source radius from the measured dose distribution..