Year
1985
Abstract
A high count rate, high throughput gammaray system for plutonium isotopic measurements has been developed and tested in a production environment. This system utilizes a small volume planar germanium detector having highresolution «500 eV at 122 keV), good-quality peak shape response and high energy-rate capability. This detector is coupled with an amplifier and analog-to-digital converter optimized for high throughput. This high count rate system has been installed and tested at the Chemistry Standards Instrument Laboratory (CSIL) at Rocky Flats. Input count rates approaching 70 kHz have been obtained, with throughput rates exceeding 30 kHz. Measurements on a wide variety of plutonium product and scrap forms show that a precision for the effective specific power of 1% or better can be achieved in counting time of 10 minutes. Since the implementation of the high count rate system at the CSIL, measurement throughput has increased over 400%.