Superconducting calorimetric alpha particle sensors for nuclear nonproliferation applications
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, MS 817.03 Boulder, Colorado (United States)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
Identification of trace nuclear materials is usually accomplished by alpha spectrometry. Current detectors cannot distinguish critical elements and isotopes. We have developed a detector called a microcalorimeter, which achieves a resolution of 1.06 keV for 5.3 MeV alphas, the highest resolving power of any energy dispersive measurement. With this exquisite resolution, we can unambiguously identify the {sup 240}Pu/{sup 239}Pu ratio in Pu, a critical measurement for ascertaining the intended use of nuclear material. Furthermore, we have made a direct measurement of the {sup 209}Po ground state decay.
- OSTI ID:
- 21175616
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 93, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2978204; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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