The invention discloses a method for quickly recognizing a heavy nuclear material by using cosmic ray muons and solves the problems of long judgment time and low accuracy in judging whether special nuclear materials are hidden in containers or other containers in ports, airport security check and other nuclear proliferation prevention application scenes in the prior art. The method comprises the steps as follows: firstly, constructing a cosmic ray muon detection system model, and calculating the scattering angle root mean square value theta i sequence of 10<6> muons penetrating through commonhigh, middle and low atomic number material targets; then, calculating the scattering angle root mean square value theta x, measured by the detection system in a short time, of the muons penetrating through targets; calculating the grey correlation degree of theta x and each value in the theta i sequence, and determining one target as the heavy nucleus material when the grey correlation degree isthe highest. The method is ingenious in design, easy to implement and capable of quickly and accurately judging whether special nuclear materials are hidden in closed containers and is very suitable for detecting whether heavy nuclear materials are hidden in cargos in containers or other containers in custom wharfs and airports.