Year
2008
Abstract
Major detector technologies currently being used for gamma-ray spectroscopy in safeguards applications include systems based on sodium iodide (NaI), cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT), cadmium-telluride (CdTe), and high-purity germanium (HPGe) crystals. Recently, a new scintillation detector based on a lanthanum bromide (LaBr3) crystal has become commercially available. The declared benefits of this new detector technology include higher resolution and improved efficiency compared with similarly configured NaI-based systems. Both detector systems offer the advantage of room-temperature operation. This paper provides an update on a continuing study assessing the safeguards applicability and advantages for isotopic and quantitative analyses of uranium using a LaBr3 based detector. Since the last time the results of this study were presented, a large population of uranium spectra have been collected and used to develop a new version of the NaIGEM code accommodating specific characteristics of the LaBr3 detector technology. The updated version of NaIGEM has been used to analyze several hundred uranium oxide powder spectra for enrichment level. A high-level overview of the improvements made to the NaIGEM code as well as a detailed summary of the results when using the new NaIGEM code with the LaBr3 detector and the Canberra InSpector 1000 multichannel analyzer will be provided.