Preliminary uranium enrichment analysis results using cadmium zinc telluride detectors

Conference · Fri Sep 08 04:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:116626

Lavietes, A D; McQuaid, J H ^[1]; Paulus, T J ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
2. EG&G ORTEC, Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and EG&G ORTEC have jointly developed a portable ambient-temperature detection system that can be used in a number of application scenarios. The detection system uses a planar cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector with custom-designed detector support electronics developed at LLNL and is based on the recently released MicroNOMAD multichannel analyzer (MCA) produced by ORTEC. Spectral analysis is performed using software developed at LLNL that was originally designed for use with high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector systems. In one application, the CZT detection system determines uranium enrichments ranging from less than 3% to over 75% to within accuracies of 20%. The analysis was performed using sample sizes of 200 g or larger and acquisition times of 30 min. The authors have demonstrated the capabilities of this system by analyzing the spectra gathered by the CZT detection system from uranium sources of several enrichments. These experiments demonstrate that current CZT detectors can, in some cases, approach performance criteria that were previously the exclusive domain of larger HPGe detector systems.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 116626
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC--121681; CONF-9509239--1; ON: DE96001719
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

44 INSTRUMENTATION
INCLUDING NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE DETECTORS
CADMIUM TELLURIDES
PERFORMANCE TESTING
RADIATION DETECTORS
X-RAY FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS
ZINC TELLURIDES