Passive, non-intrusive assay of depleted uranium

Parker, Helen Maria and Beaumont, Jonathan and Joyce, Malcolm John (2019) Passive, non-intrusive assay of depleted uranium. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 364. pp. 293-299. ISSN 0304-3894

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Abstract

The ability to detect neutrons from the spontaneous fission of 238U in samples of depleted uranium with organic liquid scintillation detectors is presented. In this paper we introduce a small modular organic liquid scintillator detector array that can detect changes in mass of 238U between 3.69 g and 14.46 g. To do this, 18-hour assays of various masses of 0.3%wt. of depleted uranium dioxide were assessed using four EJ-309 detectors, a mixed field analyser operated in pulse gradient analysis mode, and associated counting components. We observe a background-corrected fast neutron count sensitivity of (2.0 ± 0.3) × 10-4 n g-1 s-1 per detector. This research demonstrates a proof of concept for depleted uranium quantity to be assessed passively on a non-intrusive basis via its spontaneous fission decay.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Hazardous Materials
Additional Information:
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Hazardous Materials. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Hazardous Materials, 364, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.08.018
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2304
Subjects:
?? depleted uraniumneutron assaypassiveradiation detectionspontaneous fissionenvironmental chemistrypollutionenvironmental engineeringhealth, toxicology and mutagenesiswaste management and disposal ??
ID Code:
126762
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
06 Aug 2018 14:14
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
31 Dec 2023 00:58