High Resolution Analysis of CRM 137A via Decay Energy Spectroscopy

Year
2023
Author(s)
R.U. Schönemann - Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
M.P. Croce - Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
K.A. Schreiber - Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
M.H. Carpenter - Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
D.R. Schmidt - National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO, USA
J.N. Ullom - University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
K.J. Mathew - Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
File Attachment
finalpaper_500_0509110929.pdf325.21 KB
Abstract
Nuclear reference materials are essential in providing an exact standard for quality control and instrument calibration. This work is part of an ongoing effort to recertify the plutonium reference material CRM 137A, which is currently awaiting review and value assignment from multiple laboratories and methods. Measurements of Pu isotopic ratios are essential in safeguards, nonproliferation and nuclear forensics, where they can provide information about the origin and processing history of the nuclear material. Traditional methods for isotopic analysis are mass spectrometry and α-spectroscopy. Mass spectrometry is a powerful tool that can achieve high accuracies, drawbacks include the cost and complexity of the instrument and sample preparation requirements. On the other hand, α-spectroscopy with Si-detectors is simple and inexpensive but requires careful sample preparation to achieve thin deposits of nuclear material to avoid line broadening due to energy absorption in the source. Typical energy resolutions for α-spectroscopy range about 10keV fwhm (full width half maximum) and might not be able to separate nearby close α-energy lines. Here we present results of Pu isotopics of CRM 137A via Decay Energy Spectroscopy (DES) which overcomes many of the limitations faced by other techniques.