The HYDAD-D antipersonnel landmine detector

HYDAD (HYdrogen Density Anomaly Detection) systems have been developed to detect small (>200 g) antipersonnel landmines (APM) of plastic construction. The HYDAD-D detector is based on the earlier HYDAD designs HYDAD-H and HYDAD-VM. It consists of a neutron source and two identical slow neutron detectors. The difference between the responses of the two detectors is monitored as a function of position in the minefield and APM detection is based on an analysis of this difference. Laboratory tests and Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that HYDAD-D is capable of detecting the IAEA standard dummy landmine DLM2 at burial depths up to 23 cm in dry sand and at burial depths up to 7 cm in damp sand containing 12% (by mass) water.