Detection of Chemical Warfare (CW) agents and the other hazardous substances by using fast 14 MeV neutrons

Abstract The possibility of using fast 14 MeV neutrons and the associated alpha particle technique, together with a library least-squares fitting technique to detect the various CW agents as well as explosives and narcotics were investigated. The Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures for neutron sensors were established and further developed for CW agents, with the aim to reduce the false positive and false negative rates. Simulants of the various types of CW agents were prepared and measured as well as appropriate standards for measuring the ratios of chemical elements abundances: C/Cl, C/N, C/S, C/F, C/P, C/O. The influence of the measurement environment and material in which the targets were hidden was investigated.