Experimental research on PFTNA landmine detection

Background: Pulsed fast/thermal neutron analysis (PFTNA) is an advanced bulk technique for non-destructive elemental characterization, which was applied to landmine identification in some advanced countries. Purpose: To demonstrate the feasibility of the PFTNA landmine detection method. Methods: A PFTNA landmine identification system was set up based on a millisecond pulsed D-T neutron generator and a LaBr₃ (Ce) gamma detector. Interrogative experiment was carried out on different landmines and distracters in the typical organic soils and inorganic soils. Results: The fast neutron induced spectra and the thermal neutron induced spectra of the samples were obtained successfully through time-sharing measurement circuit. The relative contents of ¹²C, ¹⁶O, ¹H, ¹⁴N contained in the objects were obtained through the analysis of the neutron induced spectra. Conclusions: It could be concluded that the PFTNA method can identify the landmines from the common distracters. (authors)