Development and Benchmarking of a CdTe Detector-Based Coincident Gamma Spectroscopy
System for Enhanced Nuclear Process Monitoring

Improved non-destructive measurement techniques are needed for real-time material characterization and process monitoring in aqueous separation processes. Coincident gamma spectroscopy has the potential for widespread applicability in various measurement environments due to its ability to reduce background noise, thereby enhancing detection limits and improving isotopic identification accuracy. For low-energy coincident gamma ray detection (10s to 100s of keV), cadmium telluride (CdTe) detectors are an excellent choice due to their good energy resolution, room temperature operation enabled by lightweight electronic cooling, compact size, and high detection efficiency. The coincidence detection system consisted of up to three Amptek XR100 CdTe detectors, a CAEN DT5781 digitizer equipped with digital pulse processing/pulse height analysis firmware (DPP-PHA), and CoMPASS data acquisition software. List mode data was collected from uranium and plutonium samples to benchmark system performance. The data was processed using TListSpectrum (1), a data processing architecture developed at PNNL specifically for processing list mode radiation spectroscopy data. This research will help pave the way for more precise and reliable nuclear material monitoring, enhancing the security and safety of nuclear fuel cycle processes. (1) Pierson, Bruce, Hagen, Alex, and Archambault, Brian. TListSpectrum. Computer Software. USDOE. 20 May. 2021. Web. doi:10.11578/dc.20240614.155.