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Title: Fast neutron activation of ubiquitous materials

Journal Article · · Applied Radiation and Isotopes
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [5]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Sao Paulo (Brazil); Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, L'Aquila (Italy)
  5. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Nuclear explosions expose ubiquitous materials to large numbers of neutrons, producing a variety of radioactive isotopes. To simulate such phenomena from both fission and thermonuclear explosions, we irradiated 29 different targets with approximately 3 and 14 MeV neutrons and measured the beta-delayed gamma rays using germanium detectors. Therefore, for each neutron energy, the expected radioisotopes, half-lives, and gamma ray energies were deduced. From measurements of the ratios of activities of the radionuclides produced by neutron irradiations, we were able to identify several materials that are particularly sensitive to the neutron energy spectra.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; NA0000979; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1864942
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1924649
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-825565; 1039286; TRN: US2305803
Journal Information:
Applied Radiation and Isotopes, Vol. 181; ISSN 0969-8043
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (3)

Identification of fissile materials from fission product gamma-ray spectra
  • Beddingfield, D. H.; Cecil, F. E.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 417, Issue 2-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(98)00781-5
journal November 1998
Using low resolution gamma detectors to detect and differentiate 239Pu and 235U fissions journal July 2009
Fast neutron yields and spectra from targets of varying atomic number bombarded with deuterons from 16 to 50 MeV (for radiobiology and radiotherapy) journal March 1975

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73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS