Comparison of the NDA of HEU Oxide between the AWCC and the HPGe Detector

摘要

This paper compares the performance of the Active Well Coincidence Counter (AWCC) with the performance of high resolution gamma spectrometry using an HPGe detector to nondestructively assay highly enriched (HEU) oxide. Traditionally the AWCC was considered to be the more appropriate instrument for this measurement. Although the AWCC had a high degree of precision, the HPGe provided the more accurate measurement of this material. The AWCC determines mass of U-235 from the coincident pairs of neutron detections, or doubles rate. The HPGe determines the mass of both U-235 and U238, the enrichment, and the quantity of other radioisotopes. The Tl-208 gamma rays were used to verify the amount of attenuation for the HPGe analysis. Fifty-four cans of enriched U3O8 were shipped to the Y-12 National Security Complex from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) under Scrap Declaration LANL-45. The declared values for net weight, mass of uranium, mass of U-235, and enrichment (percent mass of U-235 to total uranium) are shown in Table A-1. The masses of U-235 range from 104g to 2404g and the enrichment varies from 20% to 98%.