Award Date

2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor 1

Emma E. Regentova, Committee Chair

First Committee Member

Muthukumar Venkatesan

Second Committee Member

Henry Selvaraj

Graduate Faculty Representative

Fatma Nasoz

Number of Pages

94

Abstract

The megavoltage X-ray technology is utilized for detecting nuclear materials in cargo containers. Interlaced response is obtained by switching rapidly between 6MeV and 9 MeV beams. It is known that the ratio of penetration levels of cargo contents taken at nominal and dual energies provides the information about atomic numbers of materials, and thus can also indicate the threat group. However, the identification is not straightforward if combinations of materials are present. The latter can lead to misdetections. It is imperative to know what are the extent and the limit of the currently employed technology, and how to carry out the inspection in real-time by balancing the human involvement and the computer assistance. We have performed experiments with Linatron K9, analyze data and conclude on an efficient system configuration. The following are addressed: (a) visualization the contents to produce an image suitable for the visual analysis, and (b) prompting the custom personnel on the presence and the location of suspicious objects.

Keywords

Dirty bomb detection; Megavoltage X-ray technology; Nuclear material detection; Radioactive materials; Remote cargo inspection systems

Disciplines

Computer Engineering | Electrical and Computer Engineering

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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