Many tools, such as mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, ion chromatography, etc., are currently available to scientists investigating interdicted nuclear material. These tools provide an analysis of physical, chemical, or isotopic characteristics of the seized material to identify its origin. In this study, a novel technique that characterizes physical attributes is proposed to provide insight into the processing route of unknown uranium ore concentrates (UOCs) and their calcination products. In particular, this study focuses on the characteristics of the surface structure captured in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images at different magnification levels. Twelve common commercial processing routes of UOCs and their calcination products are investigated. Multiple-input single-output (MISO) convolution neural networks (CNNs) are implemented to differentiate the processing routes. The proposed technique can determine the processing route of a given sample in under a second running on a graphics processing unit (GPU) with an accuracy of more than 95%. The accuracy and speed of this proposed technique enable nuclear scientists to provide the preliminary identification results of interdicted material in a short time period. Furthermore, this proposed technique uses a predetermined set of magnifications, which in turn eliminates the human bias in selecting the magnification during the image acquisition process.

目前，科学家可以使用许多工具，例如质谱法，X射线衍射，X射线荧光，离子色谱法等，来研究相隔的核材料。这些工具提供了对所缉获材料的物理，化学或同位素特征的分析，以识别其来源。在这项研究中，提出了一种表征物理属性的新颖技术，以提供对未知铀矿精矿（UOC）及其煅烧产物的加工路线的了解。特别地，该研究集中于在不同放大倍数下在扫描电子显微镜（SEM）图像中捕获的表面结构的特征。研究了UOC及其煅烧产物的十二种常见商业加工路线。实现多输入单输出（MISO）卷积神经网络（CNN）来区分处理路径。所提出的技术可以在图形处理单元（GPU）上每秒运行的情况下，以95％以上的精度确定给定样本的处理路径。这项提议技术的准确性和速度使核科学家能够在短时间内提供被禁材料的初步鉴定结果。此外，该提出的技术使用预定的放大率集合，这继而消除了在图像采集过程期间选择放大率时的人为偏差。所提出的技术可以在图形处理单元（GPU）上每秒运行的情况下，以95％以上的精度确定给定样本的处理路径。这项提议技术的准确性和速度使核科学家能够在短时间内提供被禁材料的初步鉴定结果。此外，该提出的技术使用预定的放大率集合，这继而消除了在图像采集过程中选择放大率时的人为偏差。所提出的技术可以在图形处理单元（GPU）上每秒运行的情况下，以95％以上的精度确定给定样本的处理路径。这项提议技术的准确性和速度使核科学家能够在短时间内提供被禁材料的初步鉴定结果。此外，该提出的技术使用预定的放大率集合，这继而消除了在图像采集过程中选择放大率时的人为偏差。