Year
1998
Abstract
The purpose of this program was to develop a highly-sensitive, portable gamma-ray spectrometer system for detecting and identifying trace amounts of nuclear materials in various nonproliferation scenarios. To achieve this goal, a 100% n-type germanium (Ge) crystal with liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling was packaged in a suitcase-sized container with support electronics for complete, remote operation and surveillance. An active Compton suppression shield surrounded the crystal for enhanced sensitivity levels and an attachable collimation capability was included for identifying localized sources that might be obscured by background radiation. The detection unit was completed by the addition of a newly developed state-of-the-art multichannel analyzer (MCA) capable of 64 x 16,000 channel acquisition and electronic Compton suppression. The unit yielded 2.74 keV resolution at 1330 keV, 8.5° field-of-view collimation, low operating power, > 25 hours full-time battery life, and operationed between 35 keV < E < 3 MeV.