Engineering topics

Woodring, Mitchell L.

Publications and source records attributed to Woodring, Mitchell L..

4 records

DOE OSTI2023

2023 Radiation Detection for Nuclear Security Summer School (Summary Report)

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) hosted the 9th Radiation Detection for Nuclear Security Summer School 20-30 June 2023 in Richland, WA. The school provided students with an understanding of nuclear security challenges faced in the field and exposed them to the technical foundations and insight needed to contribute to this applied research and development area.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2016

Improvements in the Method of Radiation Anomaly Detection by Spectral Comparison Ratios

Algorithms for detecting illicit gamma radiation sources must respond to a wide variety of threat signatures and ignore a wider variety of clutter. Previously, we described the Nuisance-rejection Spectral Comparison Ratio Anomaly Detection (N-SCRAD) method for indicating the presence of threat sources during mobile search operations. Our method relies on the formulation of radiation alarm test statistics applied to detector counts in numerous spectral regions of interest and our test statistics are standardized by local estimates of background variability. In this work we present a new automated procedure for selecting test statistics and specifying the regions of interest based on minimizing detectable count rates of prototype threat spectra at a specified false positive rate using simulated annealing. The new procedure can be applied to configuring the detection algorithm when the prototype threats are many and diverse without significantly compromising the detection sensitivity to any one of them. N-SCRAD makes use of estimates of background variability obtained during a search from prior measurements of background. In applications such estimates made purely from past measurements sometimes do not extrapolate well to current conditions. In this work we present a new method for correcting those estimates to current conditions of the total count rate. We demonstrate that the correction lowers detection thresholds for a specified false positive rate, enabling greater sensitivity to targets. The two proposed improvements to N-SCRAD maximize detection power for the expected variety of possible threats while reducing or maintaining the false positive rate.

Anomaly detection, Gamma-ray spectroscopy, Radiati↗

DOE OSTI2014

Summary Report for the Radiation Detection for Nuclear Security Summer School 2014

Executive Summary The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) hosted students from across the United States at the 3rd Radiation Detection for Nuclear Security Summer School from 16 – 27 June 2014. The summer school provided students with a unique understanding of nuclear security challenges faced in the field and exposed them to the technical foundations, analyses, and insight that will be required by future leaders in technology development and implementation. The course heavily emphasized laboratory and field demonstrations including direct measurements of special nuclear material. Student evaluations and feedback from student advisors indicates that the summer school achieved its objectives of 1) exposing students to the range of nuclear security applications for which radiation detection is necessary, 2) articulating the relevance of student research into the broader context, and 3) exciting students about the possibility of future careers in nuclear security. In fact, we are beginning to see previous students both enroll in graduate programs (former undergraduates) and complete internships at agencies like the National Nuclear Security Administration.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

DOE OSTI2014

DNDO Analysis Cell Concept

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) has a mission of implementing rad/nuc interdiction capabilities for a managed and coordinated response to threats, integration of federal nuclear forensics programs, and coordinating the development of the global nuclear detection and reporting architecture. In the process of executing this mission, DNDO has generated substantial information, data, technical results, operational workflows and analytical tools. The effective utilization of these resources is an overarching goal of the organization. After nearly a decade of performing work, DNDO faces a challenge in capitalizing on the large amount of data, reports, processes, tools, and people. As new work is being planned, managers and researchers need to have an understating of what information has been collected, what tools are available, the collaborations which can be utilized to propel the work forward, processes to plan and execute, and how to present conclusions and results that can assist the government in making decisions. This type of challenge can be met through the use of a series of organized and connected elements which form a broader structure (cell) that promotes cross utilization of elements such that they can be tailored (analyzed) to fit the context of the problem to be solved. The development of an analysis cell for DNDO will address the challenges of utilizing existing elements, identifying gaps, annually reporting the performance of rad/nuc interdiction instrumentation, and planning the execution of future work.

Pagh, Richard T.↗