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This work addresses the use of plastic scintillators as an alternative to 3He detectors for radioactive waste drum characterization. The time response of scintillators is three orders of magnitude faster than that of gas proportional counters and they offer similar neutron detection efficiency at lower cost. However, they are sensitive to gamma rays and the commonly used Pulse Shape Discrimination technique is not possible with basic PVT scintillators. This paper reports on an innovative data processing technique allowing to extract spontaneous fission events from parasitic coincidences, such as those from the (α,n) reactions accompanied by correlated gamma rays or from pure gamma-ray sources emitting correlated radiations. The proposed approach makes advantage of differences in the pulse detection times recorded in measurements with the 252Cf, AmBe and 60Co sources. More precisely, a 2D histogram of time delays between the detected 2nd and 1st pulses, on the x-axis, and between the 3rd and 2nd pulses, on the y-axis, is found to allow for selection of a region of interest most relevant to spontaneous fission events.

In the framework of the radioactive waste drum characterization using neutron coincidence counting, the Nuclear Measurement Laboratory of CEA Cadarache is studying plastic scintillators as an alternative to ideal but costly 3He gas proportional counters. Plastic scintillators are at least 5 times cheaper for the same detection efficiency, and in addition, they detect fast neutrons about three orders of magnitude faster than 3He detectors. However, they are sensitive to gamma rays, which implies the necessity to identify precisely gamma background sources that may affect the useful signal. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the gamma-ray spectrum of a radioactive waste drum containing glove box filters contaminated by plutonium dioxide. Gamma emissions accompanying inelastic scattering (n,n’) and (α,n) reactions that can lead to neutron-gamma coincidences parasitizing useful coincidences from plutonium spontaneous fissions are identified. Some of these parasitic gamma rays having energies up to several MeV, we plan to reject high-energy scintillator pulses with an electronics rejection threshold above 1 MeV, which should preserve the major part of useful fission neutron pulses.

The knowledge of the fissile material mass is a key challenge to enhance radioactive waste management and to ensure a high level of safety in nuclear industry. Data is analyzed according to the principles of the neutron measurement techniques. As proportional counters filled with 3He gas display high neutron detection efficiency and a good gamma-ray discrimination, they are the reference detector for passive neutron coincidence counting. A charge preamplifier or a current amplifier, depending on applications, collects the electric pulse produced by neutron interaction in the 3He gas and a threshold discriminator produces a logic pulse used for neutron counting. This paper describes the performance assessment of different commercially available electronics from Mirion Technologies, Precision Data Technology (PDT), Mesytec, as well as MONACO electronics originally developed by CEA LIST for fission chamber measurements in experimental reactors. Comparative passive neutron measurements are carried out with these electronics at CEA/DEN Nuclear Measurement Laboratory in Cadarache. Overall, PDT and Mesytec electronics show similar detection efficiency as the ACH-NA98 charge amplifier, which is commonly used in our laboratory for such applications. However, MONACO electronics have a lower detection efficiency, similar to Mirion 7820 current amplifier used in specific high-count rate applications. An optimisation of MONACO settings would probably be necessary to adapt to 3He counters instead of fission chambers.

An original approach to the time behavior of an isotope-separator-on-line production system is proposed in the case of a production system where the target and the ion source are connected through a conductance much larger than that of the exit hole of the source. One major goal of this article is to derive the analytical expression of the response time of the system for noble gases from statistical parameters only, which can be deduced from a few simple measurements. The validity limits of the expression of the total efficiency are given, and the calculations are compared to the results obtained at GANIL during operation of SPIRAL 1, using a carbon target close coupled to a multicharged electron cyclotron resonance ion source. The final analytical expression for the total efficiency shows that the usual product of diffusion efficiency, effusion efficiency, and ionization efficiency cannot be applied in our case. We show how it is possible to predict the atom-to-ion transformation efficiency for radioactive isotopes of noble gas using response times measured for stable isotopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the frame of the production of radioactive ion beams by isotope separator on line method, a new principle of target/ion-source system has been developed at GANIL to produce multicharged ions of alkalis. The principle consists of a surface ionization source associated to a multicharged electron-cyclotron-resonance ion source (ECRIS) named NANOGAN III [R. Leroy et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 749, 137 (2004)] presently used to produce radioactive ions of gas on Système de Production d’Ions Radioactifs Accélérés en Ligne partie I. The singly charged ions are injected in the multicharged ion source without mass separation, through a very short beam line including several stages of acceleration, focusing, deceleration, and rf injection. The first tests showed a good behavior of the ECRIS with the new rf coupling. A study of the surface ionization source is in progress in order to improve its coupling to the 1+ beam line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new system has been designed to inject the 10 GHz rf power in the NANOGAN III ion source dedicated to the ionization of exotic atoms from the production target of the SPIRAL system at GANIL. The present system, based on a rectangular-to-coaxial transition equipped with a tuning piston, has been replaced by a direct rectangular-to-circular wave guide to feed the plasma of the source. We present the constraints related to the rf injection and a comparison is given of the present and new injection systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]