Characterization of strong (241)Am sources

Anna Vesterlund; Dina Chernikova; Petty Cartemo; Kåre Axell; Anders Nordlund; Gunnar Skarnemark; Christian Ekberg; Henrik Ramebäck

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.03.002

Characterization of strong (241)Am sources

Appl Radiat Isot. 2015 May:99:162-7. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.03.002. Epub 2015 Mar 3.

Authors

Anna Vesterlund¹, Dina Chernikova², Petty Cartemo², Kåre Axell³, Anders Nordlund², Gunnar Skarnemark⁴, Christian Ekberg⁴, Henrik Ramebäck⁵

Affiliations

¹ Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI, Division of CBRN Defence and Security, 901 82 Umeå, Sweden; Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Nuclear Chemistry, Göteborg, Sweden. Electronic address: anna.vesterlund@foi.se.
² Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Applied Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Göteborg, Sweden.
³ Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Applied Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Göteborg, Sweden; Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴ Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Nuclear Chemistry, Göteborg, Sweden.
⁵ Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI, Division of CBRN Defence and Security, 901 82 Umeå, Sweden; Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Nuclear Chemistry, Göteborg, Sweden.

PMID: 25770857
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.03.002

Abstract

Gamma ray spectra of strong (241)Am sources may reveal information about the source composition as there may be other radioactive nuclides such as progeny and radioactive impurities present. In this work the possibility to use gamma spectrometry to identify inherent signatures in (241)Am sources in order to differentiate sources from each other, is investigated. The studied signatures are age, i.e. time passed since last chemical separation, and presence of impurities. The spectra of some sources show a number of Doppler broadened peaks in the spectrum which indicate the presence of nuclear reactions on light elements within the sources. The results show that the investigated sources can be differentiated between by age and/or presence of impurities. These spectral features would be useful information in a national nuclear forensics library (NNFL) in cases when the visual information on the source, e.g. the source number, is unavailable.

Keywords: (241)Am; Age; Gamma spectrometry; Impurities; Nuclear forensics; Signatures.