A compact, transportable IVA concept for intense pulsed active detection

Intense pulsed active detection (IPAD) has been proposed as a means of detecting contraband fissile material using an intense bremsstrahlung pulse to induce photofission. (S.B. Swanekamp, et al., IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 58, 2011, pp. 2047-2056; also see presentations at this conference by B.V. Weber, et al., S.B. Swanekamp, et al., and J.C. Zier, et al.) A number of pulsed power technologies were evaluated for this application including the linear induction accelerator (LIA) and the linear transformer driver (LTD) before selecting the induction voltage adder (IVA) for further study, as described by I.D. Smith et al., also at this conference. An important factor for the I VA choice in this particular exercise is that research and development be minimized if there were to be a design and construction effort.