39c Novel Scintillators for Nuclear Material Accounting

The U.S. domestic nuclear materials management and safeguards require new innovative technologies for use in emerging nuclear fuel cycles. Novel sensor materials and measurement techniques for nuclear material control and accounting that are designed, and tailored under specific operating conditions, to increase accuracy, resolution, and radiation hardness, while decreasing intrusiveness on operations and manufacturing costs are part of meeting these requirements. The goal of this project is to develop a gamma spectroscopy system to locate, identify, and quantify material in an inert hot cell environment utilizing new, high performance materials that are rugged, non-hygroscopic and can detect both gamma rays and neutrons in a high radiation environment. To meet this requirement, we plan to develop and investigate two new scintillator materials. In Phase I of the proposed research, we will grow and characterize new materials that are capable of dual mode detection. We will study the effect of the event rate and temperature on the gamma-ray spectral energy resolution and gamma/neutron discrimination for these new materials. At the end of Phase I, we will decide on the type of scintillator that will be pursued in Phase II to build the spectroscopy system. A radiation detection system built utilizing novel scintillator materials capable of simultaneous detection of gamma-rays and neutrons at high count rates and temperatures, with good gamma-ray resolution and neutron efficiency will easily find its application in nuclear material accounting, well logging, nuclear plant management and decommissioning, dosimetry, homeland security, and nuclear physics.