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UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS Guest
2024-11-22 2:38 |
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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2018 Meeting
Section: Nuclear and Elementary Particles Physics
Title:
Characterization of Plutonium Samples by Gamma Spectrometry
Authors:
A. E. SERBAN 1,2, A. APOSTOL 2, J. ZSIGRAI 3
Affiliation:
1. Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania
2. National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), Romania
3. Joint Research Centre of the European Commission JRC-Karlsruhe, Germany
E-mail
andreea.9509@yahoo.com
Keywords:
plutonium characterisation, gamma spectrometry, isotopic composition analysis, age dating
Abstract:
The primary goal of nuclear forensics is, undoubtedly, beyond boundaries of any kind, as it revolves upon developing awareness of actions related to important aspects of national and international nuclear security. Created to support criminal investigations in cases that involve nuclear and other radioactive materials, nuclear forensics is a valuable tool that brings together law enforcement, technical experts and government officials, each of them connected by the unique desire to overwhelm the existing threat of nuclear terrorism and to suppress actions related to it.
In the context of establishing a steadfast nuclear security architecture in Romania, and primarily targeting the existing and current-developing capabilities of IFIN-HH, the present study, performed in collaboration with the IAEA and JRC - Karlsruhe, is focused on the characterization of plutonium samples by non-destructive gamma ray spectrometry technique, providing an overview of the applicability and limitations of the methodology. The Intrinsic Efficiency Curve Method, developed in IFIN-HH, was used for computing the time elapsed since the last chemical separation of the parent-daughter products, i.e. the age of a nuclear material, one important signature in nuclear forensics.
Isotopic composition analysis, performed using high-resolution gamma ray spectrometric systems and automatic calculation codes, MGA and PC/FRAM, was used for the identification and quantitative determination of the amounts of 238,239,240,241,242Pu and 241Am in eight reference materials, respectively samples contained in the CBNM and PIDIE sets. The age of the samples was determined by gamma-spectrometry using three different approaches: MGA, PC/FRAM and the Intrinsic Efficiency Curve Method. Additionally, the latest results regarding the on-going study of a pure 241Pu sample are resumed in the present work.
References:
1. Medium Resolution Gamma Spectrometers Exercise, MRGS - IAEA
2. Certificate of Analysis, CBNM NUCLEAR REFERENCE MATERIALS 271, Commission of the European Communities, Joint Research Centre, Central Bureau for Nuclear Measurements
3. A. Apostol, "Applications of Gamma Spectrometry and Particle Accelerators in the Field of Nuclear Forensics", PhD Thesis, 2017
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