GAMMA-RAY SPECTROSCOPIC IMAGING OF DYNAMICALLY DISTRIBUTED PLUTONIUM

Year
2000
Author(s)
D.H. Beddingfield - Los Alamos National Laboratory
P.A. Russo - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Mitchell Woodring - Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc.
T.E. Ricketts - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Kevin D. Veal - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Abstract
A commercial ƒ-ray spectroscopic imaging system is being adapted for quantitative measurements of plutonium in the dissolution process of nitrate aqueous recovery operations. Dynamic material distributions and the presence of additional materials in the process area complicate the evaluation of data obtained in sequential, localized measurements on-line using portable, collimated ƒ-ray detectors. The spectroscopic imaging system measures ƒ rays from the entire dissolution system. It is equipped with a tungsten aperture, scintillator, position-sensitive photomultiplier tube, and video camera. It records 38 ( 38 image arrays of the intensities of selected ƒ-ray energies (such as the 414-keV ƒ ray of 239Pu) spatially aligned with a digitized visual image of the assay area. The uncorrected, net ƒ-ray intensity for designated processing equipment is determined by integrating counts in appropriate locations in the two-dimensional ƒ-ray image and by standard techniques of spectral analysis.