Year
2016
Abstract
Quantification of nuclear material is an essential step in the supervision of nuclear waste. It can be performed by gamma spectrometry linked with a determination of isotopic ratios. For this, the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) uses the MGA (Multiple Group Analysis) software as calculation instrument. However, this tool has a range of validity which is unknown by the user. To set this issue, a sensitivity analysis of MGA was undertaken. Nevertheless, analysis first requires the supply of well-known spectra with specific parameters which the impact on the MGA results is sought. The required number of experimental spectra being large and complex, a software, ACES (Automated Creation of Experimental Spectra), was created to compute experimental data with parameters entered by user. Based on these, the sensitivity analysis of MGA has been conducted according to an experimental plan where the influence of three factors (efficiency detection, signal-to-noise ratio and abundance of actinides) may have been studied. This paper presents the first results and the involvement in the use of MGA.