Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence for Materials Assay

Author

Quiter, Brian J. ; Ludewigt, Bernhard A. ; Mozin, Vladimir V. ; Prussin, Stanley G.

Author_Institution

Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

58

Issue

2

fYear

2011

fDate

4/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

400

Lastpage

403

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) techniques for the isotopic and quantitative assaying of radioactive material. Potential applications include age-dating of an unknown radioactive source, pre- and post-detonation nuclear forensics and safeguards for nuclear fuel cycles Examples of age-dating a strong radioactive source and assaying a spent fuel pin are discussed. The modeling work has ben performed with the Monte Carlo radiation transport computer code MCNPX and the capability to simulate NRF has bee added to the code. Discussed are the limitations in MCNPX´s photon transport physics for accurately describing photon scattering processes that are important contributions to the background and impact the applicability of the NRF assay technique.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; fluorescence; nuclear fuel cycle facilities; nuclear materials safeguards; nuclear resonance scattering; radioactive sources; Monte Carlo radiation transport; age-dating; computer code MCNPX; isotopic assaying; material assay; nuclear fuel cycles; nuclear resonance fluorescence; nuclear safeguards; photon scattering processes; photon transport physics; post-detonation nuclear forensics; pre-detonation nuclear forensics; quantitative assaying; radioactive material; radioactive source; spent fuel pin; Converters; Detectors; Fuels; Materials; Photonics; Scattering; Tungsten; MCNPX; non-destructive analysis; nuclear resonance fluorescence; nuclear safeguards;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2011.2112777

Filename

5722068