Isotopic composition analysis and age dating of uranium samples by high resolution gamma ray spectrometry

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2016.06.013
• Publication Date: 2016-06-30T07:31:18Z
• Authors: A.I. Apostol; A. Pantelica; O. Sima; V. Fugaru
• Keywords: Gamma ray spectrometry; Semiconductor detector; Isotopes of uranium; Gamma Spectroscopy; Enriched uranium

Non-destructive methods were applied to determine the isotopic composition and the time elapsed since last chemical purification of nine uranium samples. The applied methods are based on measuring gamma and X radiations of uranium samples by high resolution low energy gamma spectrometric system with planar high purity germanium detector and low background gamma spectrometric system with coaxial high purity germanium detector. The “Multigroup γ-ray Analysis Method for Uranium” (MGAU) code was used for the precise determination of samples’ isotopic composition. The age of the samples was determined from the isotopic ratio 214Bi/234U. This ratio was calculated from the analyzed spectra of each uranium sample, using relative detection efficiency. Special attention is paid to the coincidence summing corrections that have to be taken into account when performing this type of analysis. In addition, an alternative approach for the age determination using full energy peak efficiencies obtained by Monte Carlo simulations with the GESPECOR code is described.