Analysis of the radiation produced by Z-machine nuclear experiments at Sandia National Laboratory and the materials irradiated indicate that the majority of produced radionuclides can easily be detected. One significant exception is volumetric contamination of stainless steel by iron-55. Detecting iron-55 in Z-machine components presents a particular problem due to its low-abundance and the low-energy (5.9 keV) xray it emits. The nuclide is often below the minimum detectable activity (MDA) threshold and resolution criteria of many standard radiation detection devices. Liquid scintillation has proven useful in determining iron-55 presence in loose contamination at concentrations below that of regulatory guidelines, but determination of volumetric iron- 55 contamination remains a significant challenge. Due to this difficulty, an alternate method of detection is needed. The use of radioactive surrogates correlating to iron-55 production is proposed in order to establish an estimate of iron-55 abundance. The primary interaction pathways and interaction probabilities for all likely radionuclide production in the Z-machine were tabulated and radionuclides with production pathways matching those of iron-55 production were noted. For purposes of nuclide identification and adequate detection, abundant gamma emitters with half-lives on the order of days were selected for use as surrogates. Interaction probabilities were compared between that of iron-55 production and a chosen surrogate. Weighting factors were developed to account for the differences in the interaction probabilities over the range of the known energy spectra produced on the device. The selection process resulted in cobalt-55, cobalt-57 and chromium-51 as optimal surrogates for iron-55 detection in both deuterium and non-deuterium loaded interactions. A decay corrected correlation of the surrogates (chromium-51, cobalt-57 and cobalt-55) to iron-55 for deuterium and non-deuterium loaded Z-machine driven reactions was derived. The weighting factors presented here are estimates which are based on rough comparisons of cross-section graphs. Analysis considering factors such as energy spectrum criteria to provide refined weighting factors may be utilized in future work.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:54:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:54:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / No presente trabalho foi desenvolvido o método de padronização de radionuclídeos produzidos em cíclotrons utilizando o sistema de coincidências 4(PC)-NaI(Tl) composto de um contador proporcional operando a 0,1 MPa. Os radionuclídeos selecionados, foram o 201Tl, de uso em medicina nuclear e o 55Fe padrão primário muito utilizado na calibração de espectrômetros de raios-x. O 201Tl desintegra pelo processo de captura eletrônica, seguido pela emissão de radiação gama. A taxa de desintegração foi determinada pela técnica de extrapolação linear da eficiência empregando dois métodos: discriminação eletrônica e absorvedores externos. As fonte radioativas foram preparadas em substratos de Collodion com espessura de 20 g cm-2. O sistema eletrônico utilizado é o convencional para este tipo de medida. Os eventos observados foram registrados empregando o método TAC. O 55Fe desintegra pelo processo de captura eletrônica decaindo diretamente para o estado fundamental do 54Mn, emitindo raios-x com aproximadamente 6 keV. A taxa de desintegração foi determinada pelo método do traçador. Esta técnica foi aplicada utilizando dois radionuclídeos traçadores, que decaem pelo processo de captura eletrônica seguido da emissão de fótons, são eles 51Cr e 54Mn. As medidas foram feitas com 1 e 2 absorvedores de Al com espessura de 150 g cm-2. A atividade foi obtida extrapolando para zero espessura de Al. As incertezas envolvidas e suas correlações foram analisadas seguindo a metodologia de matriz de covariâncias. / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP