Assessing Lanthanum-Bromide Detectors for Safeguards Applications

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2008

OSTI ID:961555

Gariazzo, Claudio Andres ^[1]; Saavedra, Steven F ^[1]; Smith, Steven E ^[1]; Solodov, Alexander A ^[1]

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1. ORNL

Major detector technologies currently being used for gamma-ray spectroscopy in safeguards applications include systems based on sodium iodide (NaI), cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT), cadmium-telluride (CdTe), and high-purity germanium (HPGe) crystals. Recently, a new scintillation detector based on a lanthanum bromide (LaBr3) crystal has become commercially available. The declared benefits of this new detector technology include higher resolution and improved efficiency compared with similarly configured NaI-based systems. Both detector systems offer the advantage of room-temperature operation. This paper describes the results of a study assessing the safeguards applicability and advantages for isotopic and quantitative analyses of uranium using the LaBr3-based detector, as well as an investigation into the general operating characteristics of the LaBr3-based detector. The results are compared with those from a widely used NaI-based detector system (Canberra's Inspector-1000 multichannel analyzer) operated under similar environmental conditions and hardware configuration, using commercially available software packages (NaIGEM and Genie-2000).

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: NNSA USDOE - National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 961555
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
CONFIGURATION
EFFICIENCY
GERMANIUM
LANTHANUM BROMIDES
MULTI-CHANNEL ANALYZERS
RESOLUTION
SAFEGUARDS
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SODIUM IODIDES
SPECTROSCOPY
URANIUM