Year
1985
Abstract
Passive neutron counting can be used to give a convenient and rapid confirmation of plutonium content for shipper-receiver confirmation. Different types of neutron detectors have been designed to accommodate a large variety of sample containers. When neutron coincidence counting is used, the measurement becomes relatively insensitive to neutron backgrounds and rather specific to the fertile (2^°Pu-effectlve) content. For samples with significant neutron self-multiplication, the reals-to-total ratio (R/T) gives an additional confirmation that the induced multiplication is consistent with the declared fissile content. For samples with a very high (a,n) yield, the induced fission rate can be used to directly confirm the fissile content.