Uncertainty of Plutonium Isotopic Measurements with Microcalorimeter and High-Purity Germanium Detectors

The nondestructive assay (NDA) of plutonium-bearing materials using gamma-ray spectroscopy supports global nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards efforts. High-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors have been used for this application for decades, but the uncertainty limit remains around 1% relative error for measured isotope ratios, an order of magnitude larger than destructive assay. To lower NDA uncertainty limits, we are pursuing new measurement technology using superconducting microcalorimeter detectors, and assessing the sources of current uncertainty limits. We compare results from analysis of plutonium isotopic standards using HPGe and microcalorimeter detectors, and find lower random error for the microcalorimeter data. Uncertainties in the reference values of constants of nature contribute to the total measurement error. For one particular set of constants, the gamma-ray energies, we find that microcalorimeter analysis is much less sensitive (more than a factor of ten) to the uncertainty in nuclear data than HPGe.