Cobalt 60 as a marking agent

James R. Tinsley; Kenneth J. Moy; Laura Tunnell

doi:10.1117/12.245121

19 July 1996 Cobalt 60 as a marking agent

James R. Tinsley, Kenneth J. Moy, Laura Tunnell

Proceedings Volume 2859, Hard X-Ray/Gamma-Ray and Neutron Optics, Sensors, and Applications; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.245121
Event: SPIE's 1996 International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1996, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

Cobalt 60 is a particularly attractive candidate for marking explosives because not only does it have a useful half-life of 5.3 years, but it produces tow highly penetrating gamma rays, at 1.173 and 1.332 MeV, in coincidence. The fact that two strong, monoenergetic gamma rays are produced simultaneously makes it possible to detect a much smaller amount of this element in the presence of terrestrial background radiation than is possible for other radioactive elements that produce only one gamma ray. We have built a test-bed system comprising six large plastic scintillators and their associated hardware to investigate the performance of this technique. Experiments have shown that reliable detection can be done with a sufficiently small amount of cobalt 60 so as not to raise safety concerns.

Citation Download Citation

James R. Tinsley, Kenneth J. Moy, and Laura Tunnell "Cobalt 60 as a marking agent", Proc. SPIE 2859, Hard X-Ray/Gamma-Ray and Neutron Optics, Sensors, and Applications, (19 July 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.245121

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