133Xe Noble Gas Mass Spectrometry Measurement for High Purity Germanium Detector Performance Verification

Conference · Tue Jun 11 04:00:00 EDT 2024

OSTI ID:3006392

Martinez, Alonzo ^[1]; Snyder, Darin C ^[1]; Lundgreen, Ellie ^[2]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory
2. University of Utah

Idaho National Laboratory produces quality control standards for laboratories that operate xenon radionuclide monitoring systems. Activities reported with each quality control standard are quantified using high purity germanium detectors. A collection of measurement capabilities are being set up at Idaho National Laboratory to establish an in-house high purity germanium detector performance verification system, with noble gas mass spectrometry being one of these measurement capabilities. The first noble gas mass spectrometry and high purity germanium measurement comparison is presented here. A Xe-133 gas sample was prepared and the activity was quantified with high purity germanium detectors. The Xe-133 sample was diluted with a known quantity of isotopically enriched Xe-126 gas; the resulting Xe-133 : Xe-126 atom ratio was calculated to be 1.15x10-4 +/- 2% at reference time t. An aliquot of this gas sample containing approximately 10 million Xe-133 atoms was introduced into a ThermoFisher Scientific Helix MC Plus noble gas mass spectrometer for analysis. The measured Xe-133 : Xe-126 atom ratio was determined to be 1.10x10-4 +/- 2% (1-sigma uncertainty) at reference time t, about 4.3% lower than the atom ratio determined with the measured high purity germanium activity.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 3006392
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-24-78186
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 - INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
47 - OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
High Purity Germanium Detector
Mass Spectrometry
Xenon Radionuclides