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Thermal Neutron Analysis For Improvised Explosive Device Detection, Matthew David Marziale
Thermal Neutron Analysis For Improvised Explosive Device Detection, Matthew David Marziale
Open Access Dissertations
In this dissertation, the design of a system to detect improvised explosive devices is considered. The technique utilized is thermal neutron analysis. In this method, thermal neutrons are used to interrogate a volume for the presence of nitrogen, which is used as an indicator of explosive, given its unusual high energy line in the gamma ray spectrum generated by thermal capture reactions on explosive material. The performance of the system is then considered for a number of devices used to represent an improvised explosive device, including a 155 mm shell, an antitank mine, and a air to surface bomb. The …
An Investigation Into The Phenomenological Relation Between Solar Activity And Nuclear Beta-Decay Rates, Tasneem M. Mohsinally
An Investigation Into The Phenomenological Relation Between Solar Activity And Nuclear Beta-Decay Rates, Tasneem M. Mohsinally
Open Access Dissertations
We investigate experimental evidence for time-varying nuclear decay rates, in contrast to the widely-accepted view that nuclear decaying isotopes disintegrate at a constant rate unaffected by external conditions. We study several past cases of radioactive isotopes exhibiting annual periodicities in their decay rates, presumably related to the annual variation in Earth-Sun distance. Following recent indications of shorter-lived anomalies in 54Mn decay rates concomitant with an X-class flare in 2006, we attempt to design and develop a series of unique signal detection algorithms to identify regions of anomalous activity in a nuclear decay signal. With stringent threshold cut-offs and filtering …
Hydrogen Loading System Development And Evaluation Of Tritiated Substrates To Optimize Performance In Tritium Based Betavoltaics, Thomas E. Adams
Hydrogen Loading System Development And Evaluation Of Tritiated Substrates To Optimize Performance In Tritium Based Betavoltaics, Thomas E. Adams
Open Access Dissertations
State-of-the-art hydrogen loading system onto thin metallic films based on differential pressure in calibrated chambers has been developed for conditions pressures and temperatures up to 69 bar and 500°C, respectively. Experiments on hydrogen loading on to palladium films of thickness 50 and 250 nm were conducted at pressure ranging from 0.2 bar to 10 bar at temperature 310°C. For first time film hydrogen loading was carried out at 1 bar and at room temperature which temperature. Beta flux exiting surface of metal tritide films has been modeled with MC-SET (Monte Carlo Simulation of Electron Trajectories in solids). Surface beta flux …