High-resolution microcalorimeter detectors as a tool in the future of nuclear safeguards

Year
2010
Author(s)
Pete Karpius - Los Alamos National Laboratory
A.S. Hoover - Los Alamos National Laboratory
J. Hoteling - Los Alamos National Laboratory
M. W. Rabin - Los Alamos National Laboratory
D. A. Bennett - National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO
V. Kotsubo - National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO
J. N. Ullom - National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO
D. W. Lee - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Abstract
New measurements are presented from the LANL-NIST micorcalorime- ter array for two standard plutonium sources. The results demonstrate substantially smaller error bars obtained from the spectral analysis pro- gram FRAM. Some areas of improvement to the analysis technique have been identi?ed, indicating that the microcalorimeter results can be im- proved upon. These results support the viability of a device for per- forming real nuclear safeguards measurements in the near future.