Pulse-height distributions of neutron and gamma rays from plutonium-oxide samples

S. A. Pozzi, S. D. Clarke, M. Flaska, P. Peerani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present new results on neutron and gamma-ray pulse-height distributions (PHDs) measured with liquid scintillators from five plutonium-oxide samples of varying mass and burnup and a 252Cf isotopic source. We show that the analysis of the pulse-height distributions can be used to easily distinguish the fissile material (plutonium oxide) from the 252Cf source. Moreover, the slope of the measured pulse-height distributions can be analyzed to distinguish the burnup of the samples, independent of their masses. Finally, the measurement scenarios are modeled using the MCNP-PoliMi code and good agreement is observed between the measured and the simulated pulse-height distributions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)310-315
Number of pages6
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Volume608
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 11 2009

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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