Discrimination of chemical and high-explosive munitions by neutron interrogation for arms control treaty verification

For treaty verification purposes, due to the hazards of direct sampling of chemical and explosive munitions, non-destructive evaluation methods have important safety advantages. The authors assay method employs neutrons from a californium-252 radioisotopic source to induce capture and inelastic reactions in a munition under test, and the resulting gamma radiation is measured with an high-purity germanium gamma-ray detector. For field verification, a portable, battery-operated assay system has been developed that performs automatic spectrum analysis and agent identification in near-real time. In tests with actual chemical and high explosives munitions, the assay method reliably identifies nerve agents GB and VX, blister agents HD and L, white phosphorous, and high explosives