Year
2004
Abstract
The FRAM code (Fixed-energy Response-function Analysis with Multiple efficiency) was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the gamma-ray spectrometry measurement of the isotopic composition of plutonium, uranium, and other actinides. It is capable of analyzing gamma ray peaks obtained with the germanium detectors in the energy range from 30 keV to greater than 1 MeV, including the X-ray region. It is very robust and can analyze spectra from good detectors as well as much degraded detectors. How much does the detector degradation affect the FRAM isotopic analysis performance at each different energy region? What are the worst resolutions of a detector (planar germanium or coaxial germanium) at various energy regions that FRAM can still analyze the data? What input rate is optimal for an isotopic gamma-ray system? How does the input rate affect the precision and the bias of a measurement? These questions and others will be answered.