Measurement System for Nuclear Safeguards Based on Bismuth-Germanate Scintillators

摘要

To determine gamma-ray flux spectra, with high efficiency as the foremost objective, we constructed a system that uses bismuth-germanage scintillators as sensors. The system, consisting of eight scintillators and a LeCroy 3500 data acquisition system, has been calibrated and characterized from 0.06 to 8.29 MeV. By fitting the calibration spectra with a function containing 17 parameters, we were able to construct theoretical response functions, which we then used to obtain the gamma-ray flux spectra at multiple space points resulting from a variety of radioactive objects of interest in nuclear safeguards. The results of our procedure agree with calculated values to within less than 10%. 6 figures. (ERA citation 08:031313)