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Mr. Andrew Erlandson

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd. / Carleton University
Email: andrew.erlandson@cnl.ca aerlands@physics.carleton.ca

Date of Live Presentation: tba
Location: tba



Title

Muon Tomography: Putting particle physics to work for nuclear safety and security

Abstract

Muon Tomography has seen a resurgence in interest over the past 15 years. Since its inception in the 1950s, new applications have been identified thanks to advances in particle detector technology, analysis techniques, and identified gaps in several areas such as border security and nuclear safeguards. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd. (CNL) has been involved in a Canada-wide effort to develop new technology to solve these problems. To accomplish this, techniques in particle physics were exploited for practical applications. This required input from particle physicists, engineers, software developers, and federal stakeholders. The result was a novel muon detection system situated at CNL’s Chalk River site allowing for direct testing of detector hardware and analysis tools in a real-world setting with real nuclear materials. This lecture will describe the motivations for the research, the basic physical principles on which it works, the resulting apparatus, and experimental results to date. Practical applications of particle physics bridge the gap between the classroom and the professional world – one particle (or particle physicist) at a time.


Short bio

Mr Erlandson completed his Honours BSc in Physics at the University of Ottawa in 2009. He then completed his MSc in High Energy Physics at Carleton University in 2011. From 2011 to 2013, he contributed to particle detector development efforts at Carleton before accepting a physicist position with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd. (then Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd) in Chalk River. At CNL, Andrew has a leadership role in applied muon physics research while contributing to other areas including novel detector development and reactor physics analysis. As of September 2016, Andrew has also been pursuing a PhD at Carleton University funded entirely by CNL. Andrew’s PhD research is on the DEAP-3600 dark matter experiment at SNOLAB.


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