MEASUREMENT OF 238U MUONIC X RAYS WITH A GERMANIUM DETECTOR SETUP

Year
2009
Author(s)
E.-I. Esch - Los Alamos National Laboratory
J. Hoteling - Los Alamos National Laboratory
A. Adelmann - Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland
L. Mitchell - U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
T.J. Stocki - Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
In the ?eld of nuclear non-proliferation muon interactions with materials are of great interest. This paper describes an experiment conducted at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in Switzerland where a muon beam is stopped in a uranium target.The muons produce characteristic muonic X rays. Muons will penetrate shielding easily and the produced characteristic X rays can be used for positive isotope identi?cation. Furthermore, the X rays for uranium isotopes lie in the energy range of 6-7 MeV, which allows them to have an almost optimal mean free path in heavy shielding such as lead or steel. A measurement was conducted at PSI to prove the feasibility of detecting muonic X rays from a large sample of depleted uranium (several kilograms) with a germanium detector. In this paper, the experimental setup and analysis of the measurement itself is presented.