Development of a portable ambient temperature radiometric assaying instrument

Author

Lavietes, A.D. ; McQuaid, J.H. ; Ruhter, W.D. ; Paulus, T.J.

Author_Institution

Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab., CA, USA

Volume

42

Issue

4

fYear

1995

fDate

8/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

634

Lastpage

638

Abstract

There is a strong need for portable radiometric instrumentation that can accurately confirm the presence of nuclear materials and allow isotopic analysis of radionuclides in the field. To fulfil this need we are developing a hand-held, non-cryogenic, low-power gamma- and X-ray measurement and analysis instrument that can both search and then accurately verify the presence of nuclear materials. We will report on the use of cadmium zinc telluride detectors, signal processing electronics, and the new field-portable instrument based on the MicroNOMAD Multichannel Analyzer from EG&G ORTEC. We will also describe the isotopic analysis that allows uranium enrichment measurements to be made accurately in the field

Keywords

X-ray detection; detector circuits; gamma-ray detection; nuclear electronics; portable instruments; pulse height analysers; radiation monitoring; radiometry; semiconductor counters; signal processing; 293 K; CdTe; MicroNOMAD Multichannel Analyzer; enrichment measurements; field measurement; hand-held instrument; isotopic analysis; low-power X-ray measurement; low-power gamma-ray measurement; nuclear materials; portable ambient temperature radiometric assaying instrument; radionuclides; semiconductor detectors; signal processing electronics; Cadmium compounds; Detectors; Instruments; Nuclear electronics; Nuclear measurements; Radiometry; Signal analysis; Signal processing; Temperature; Zinc compounds;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.467900

Filename

467900