Comparison of DD, DT and Cf-252 neutron excitation of light and medium mass nuclei for field PGNAA applications

Prompt Gamma Ray Neutron activation analysis can offer significant cost and safety advantages in the identification of explosives and toxic chemicals. As an example, the US military examined over a thousand suspect chemical munitions with Idaho National Laboratory's PINS Chemical Assay System last year. PGNAA requires, of course, a neutron source to excite the atomic nuclei of the item under test via neutron capture and inelastic neutron scattering reactions and the choice of neutron source can drastically affect PGNAA system performance. We have carried out Monte Carlo and laboratory experiments comparing DD, DT and Cf-252 neutrons incident on light and medium mass chemical elements, toward optimizing the design of future neutron-generator-based PGNAA systems for field use. We report the excitation of (n, γ) and (n, n′) gamma rays from these elements by each type of neutron source.