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Review
. 2018 Dec 10;377(2137):20180062.
doi: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0062.

Novel muon imaging techniques

Guangliang Yang  1   2 , Tony Clarkson  3   2 , Simon Gardner  3   2 , David Ireland  3   2 , Ralf Kaiser  3   2 , David Mahon  3   2 , Ramsey Al Jebali  3   2 , Craig Shearer  4 , Matthew Ryan  4
Affiliations
Review

Novel muon imaging techniques

Guangliang Yang et al. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. .

Abstract

Owing to the high penetrating power of high-energy cosmic ray muons, muon imaging techniques can be used to image large bulky objects, especially objects with heavy shielding. Muon imaging systems work just like CT scanners in the medical imaging field-that is, they can reveal information inside of a target. There are two forms of muon imaging techniques: muon absorption imaging and muon multiple scattering imaging. The former is based on the flux attenuation of muons, and the latter is based on the multiple scattering of muons in matter. The muon absorption imaging technique is capable of imaging very large objects such as volcanoes and large buildings, and also smaller objects like spent fuel casks; the muon multiple scattering imaging technique is best suited to inspect smaller objects such as nuclear waste containers. Muon imaging techniques can be applied in a broad variety of fields, i.e. from measuring the magma thickness of volcanoes to searching for secret cavities in pyramids, and from monitoring the borders of countries checking for special nuclear materials to monitoring the spent fuel casks for nuclear safeguards applications. In this paper, the principles of muon imaging are reviewed. Image reconstruction algorithms such as Filtered Back Projection and Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization are discussed. The capability of muon imaging techniques is demonstrated through a Geant4 simulation study for imaging a nuclear spent fuel cask.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Cosmic-ray muography'.

Keywords: image reconstruction algorithm; inverse problem; muon imaging.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The layout of the detector system and a MC-10 spent fuel cask.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
(a) Image reconstructed using the muon absorption technique, (b) image reconstructed with the multiple scattering technique, with the FBP algorithm.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Muon multiple scattering image reconstructed with the MLEM algorithm.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
A photo of lead letters ‘SL’, and an image reconstructed with the MLEM algorithm.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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