Enrichment measurement by passive γ-ray spectrometry of uranium dioxide fuel pellets using a europium-doped, strontium iodide scintillator

Parker, Andrew J. and Bandala, Manuel and Croft, Stephen and Crouch, Laurie and Dunphy, R. David and Hutchinson, Daniel and Logsdon, Roy and Ma, Xiandong and Marshall, Stephen and Murray, Paul and Sarfraz, Ali and Stirzaker, P. and Taylor, C. James and Zabalza, Jaime and Joyce, Malcolm J. (2024) Enrichment measurement by passive γ-ray spectrometry of uranium dioxide fuel pellets using a europium-doped, strontium iodide scintillator. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 1062. 169191. ISSN 0168-9002 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2024.169191)

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Abstract

The performance of a europium-doped strontium iodide scintillator for uranium enrichment measurement of a variety of sintered uranium dioxide fuel pellets is described and compared to that of caesium iodide and sodium iodide. Enrichment has been determined via passive γ-ray spectrometry of the 186 keV line from uranium-235 using gross count, net count, and peak ratio analyses. The 38 mm Ø x 38 mm strontium iodide crystal demonstrates superior energy resolution (3.43 ± 0.03% at 662 keV) and competitive detection efficiency for its size in the energy range of interest for uranium enrichment analysis (<250 keV). It demonstrates better χ v 2 and coefficient of determination values than caesium iodide and sodium iodide when measuring uranium enrichment using the gross- and net-count from the 186 keV emission. It is shown to have the least measurement variance of the three scintillators studied in determining the uranium enrichment of pellets in a blind test, with a relative error comparative to sodium iodide and smaller than caesium iodide. This research heralds the potential of strontium iodide in passive γ-ray uranium enrichment applications.

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