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Report No.
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The Design and implementation of the PGA measurement system in an integrated Active Neutron non-destructive analysis system, "Active-N"

Furutaka, Kazuyoshi  ; Ozu, Akira  ; Toh, Yosuke   

We have been developing an integrated active neutron non-destructive analysis system for highly radioactive nuclear materials, "Active-N", using an intense D-T neutron source. The system is composed of the following mutually complementing different measurement systems: Differential Die-away Analysis (DDA), Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA), and Prompt Gamma-ray Analysis (PGA). The former two are for measurements of total amount of fissile material and of isotopic composition, respectively. The purpose of the last one, i.e. PGA measurement system is the detection of explosives contained in e.g., dirty bombs and of chemical warfare agents, as well as of neutron poisons which absorb neutrons and disturb DDA measurements. This report describes mainly the PGA measurement system. In the PGA measurement system, to resolve individual gamma-ray peaks, a Ge detector is utilized. It is well known that irradiation of fast neutrons ($$gesim10$$ keV) to Ge detectors cause damages to the detectors and gradually worsen their resolution, and finally make them unusable without a laborious treatment. Therefore, it is essential to shield the PGA detector against the neutrons from the D-T neutron generator. In addition, to reduce background gamma rays from the materials used for the DDA system, they should also be carefully chosen. In order to design an appropriate neutron shield for the PGA measurement system and diminish the sources of the background gamma rays, simulation study was done using a particle transport code system PHITS. Based on the results, a shielding for the PGA measurement system has been designed which reduces the number of damaging neutrons by an order of magnitude. The Active-N system which incorporates the PGA measurement system equipped with the neutron shielding, has been installed at NUCEF facility in JAEA Tokai. This research was implemented under the subsidy for nuclear security promotion from MEXT.

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