A DEMONSTRATION OF THE GROSS COUNT TOMOGRAPHIC GAMMA SCANNER (GC-TGS) METHOD FOR THE NONDESTRUCTIVE ASSAY OF TRANSURANIC WASTE

Year
1998
Author(s)
M. Rawool-Sullivan - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Robert J. Estep - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Sheila Melton - Los Alamos National Laboratory
David K. Miko - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Abstract
We examined the accuracy and sensitivity levels for three variations on the TGS method: the original TGS method using a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector to measure net areas of full-energy gamma-ray peaks; a modified HPGe-detector method that uses net areas for the transmission analysis and the gross count TGS (GC-TGS) method for the emission analysis; and a NaI-detector method that uses the GC-TGS method exclusively. We found that while the accuracies of the methods were comparable, the GC-TGS method boosted the sensitivity per detector by a factor of approx. two for the HPGe GC variation and four for the NaI method. The implications for improved TGS scanner design are discussed.