FOUR PI CALIBRATION AND MODELING OF A BARE GERMANIUM DETECTOR IN A CYLINDRICAL FIELD SOURCE
In reference 1 the authors described {gamma}-ray holdup assay of a Mossbauer spectroscopy instrument where they utilized two axial symmetric cylindrical shell acquisitions and two disk source acquisitions to determine Am-241 and Np-237 contamination. The measured contents of the two species were determined using a general detector efficiency calibration taken from a 12-inch point source.2 The authors corrected the raw spectra for container absorption as well as for geometry corrections to transform the calibration curve to the applicable axial symmetric cylindrical source - and disk source - of contamination. The authors derived the geometry corrections with exact calculus that are shown in equations (1) and (2) of our Experimental section. A cylindrical shell (oven source) acquisition configuration is described in reference 3, where the authors disclosed this configuration to gain improved sensitivity for holdup measure of U-235 in a ten-chamber oven. The oven was a piece of process equipment used in the Savannah River Plant M-Area Uranium Fuel Fabrication plant for which a U-235 holdup measurement was necessary for its decontamination and decommissioning in 2003.4 In reference 4 the authors calibrated a bare NaI detector for these U-235 holdup measurements. In references 5 and 6 the authors calibrated a bare HpGe detector in a cylindrical shell configuration for improved sensitivity measurements of U-235 in other M-Area process equipment. Sensitivity was vastly improved compared to a close field view of the sample, with detection efficiency of greater than 1% for the 185.7-keV {gamma}-ray from U-235. In none of references 3 - 7 did the authors resolve the exact calculus descriptions of the acquisition configurations. Only the empirical efficiency for detection of the 185.7-keV photon from U-235 decay was obtained. Not until the 2010 paper of reference 1 did the authors derive a good theoretical description of the flux of photons onto the front face of a detector from an axially symmetric cylindrical shell. Subsequent to publication of 1, the theoretical treatment of the cylindrical shell and disk source acquisition sources was recognized by the Los Alamos National Laboratory as suitable for including in the Safeguards Training Program.8 Therefore, we felt it was important to accurately demonstrate the calculus describing the cylindrical shell configuration for the HpGe detector and to theoretically account for the observed bare-detector efficiencies measured in references (3-6). In this paper we demonstrate the applicability of the cylindrical shell derivation to a flexible planar sheet of known Am-241, Eu-152, and Cs-137 activity that we rolled into a symmetrical cylindrical shell of radioactivity. Using the geometry correction equation of reference 1, we calculate geometry correction values using the known detector and source dimensions combined with source to detector distances. We then compare measured detection efficiencies from a cylindrical shell of activity for the 185.7-keV photon (U-235) and for the 414.3-keV photon (Pu-239) with those determined for a 12-inch point source(2,7) to demonstrate agreement between experiment and the theoretically calculated values derived by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) authors of reference 1. We demonstrate this geometry correction first for the 185.7- and 414.3-keV {gamma}-rays. But because the detector was point source calibrated at 12 inches for the energy range (60 -1700) keV (using two distinct sources) to map its intrinsic efficiency, the geometry correction for any acquisition configuration holds for all photon energies.2 We demonstrate that for ten photon energies in the range 121 keV to 967 keV. The good agreement between experiment and calculation is demonstrated at five source to detector distances using the identical shielded HpGe detector of references 4-7 as well as with a separate HpGe detector. We then extend the measurement to include a single acquisition where the flexible source is wrapped around the bare detector in a symmetrical cylinder that radiates on both faces of the detector as well as on to the detector's cylindrical sides of known dimensions. We derive the exact calculus to calculate the flux of the source on to the cylindrical sides of the detector. We then demonstrate outstanding agreement between the measured efficiency for the two primary U-235 and Pu-239 photons in this oven source configuration compared to the point source of activity for which the detector was originally calibrated.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-08SR22470
- OSTI ID:
- 1014144
- Report Number(s):
- SRNS-STI-2011-00224; RSINAK; TRN: US1102604
- Journal Information:
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Journal Name: Review of Scientific Instruments; ISSN 0034-6748
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
CALIBRATION
CONFIGURATION
CONTAINERS
CONTAMINATION
DECAY
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
DETECTION
DIMENSIONS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY RANGE
FUEL FABRICATION PLANTS
GE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
GEOMETRY
NAI DETECTORS
PHOTONS
POINT SOURCES
RADIOACTIVITY
SAFEGUARDS
SENSITIVITY
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY
URANIUM