Speaker
Description
Neutron sources have been in use for quite some time, and the need for accurate account for nuclear material especially Plutonium and Uranium is necessary for IAEA safety and safeguards. Following recent events there has been special need to know how much Plutonium or Americium are present in old sources that are scattered around the world in the form of Pu-Be neutron sources. Isotopic content is of great and important information for further certification and accountancy of nuclear material.
Most of these sources lack in the source description the amount of active material present not to mention isotopic contents, one way of doing this is by gamma-ray interrogation. One such a neutron source Pu-Be type was characterized by experimental measurements at ELI-NP at National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH).
In our present work we use Gold and Nickel around Pu-Be, and two other neutron sources for comparison reasons Am-Be, 252Cf. We aim to use neutron activation analysis to accurately get the neutron flux from the amount of gamma-rays induced by the activation.
Gold has been used as a monitor for neutron sources successfully before and its being used in previous experimental measurements as neutron flux monitor, Nickel is being used as a comparison purpose.
The experiment will further look into establishing a way to calibrate detectors for higher energies expected to come from Variable Gamma – Ray Source at ELI-NP.
