| Issue |
EPJ Web Conf.
Volume 170, 2018
ANIMMA 2017 – Advancements in Nuclear Instrumentation Measurement Methods and their Applications
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 05003 | |
| Number of page(s) | 4 | |
| Section | Nuclear fuel cycle | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201817005003 | |
| Published online | 10 January 2018 | |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201817005003
Gamma-ray spectroscopy measurements and simulations for uranium mining
CEA, DEN, Cadarache, Nuclear Measurement Laboratory, F-13108 Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, France.
AREVA Mines, F-92084 Paris La Défense Cedex, France.
Published online: 10 January 2018
AREVA Mines and the Nuclear Measurement Laboratory of CEA Cadarache are collaborating to improve the sensitivity and precision of uranium concentration evaluation by means of gamma measurements. This paper reports gamma-ray spectra, recorded with a high-purity coaxial germanium detector, on standard cement blocks with increasing uranium content, and the corresponding MCNP simulations. The detailed MCNP model of the detector and experimental setup has been validated by calculation vs. experiment comparisons. An optimization of the detector MCNP model is presented in this paper, as well as a comparison of different nuclear data libraries to explain missing or exceeding peaks in the simulation. Energy shifts observed between the fluorescence X-rays produced by MCNP and atomic data are also investigated. The qualified numerical model will be used in further studies to develop new gamma spectroscopy approaches aiming at reducing acquisition times, especially for ore samples with low uranium content.
Key words: Nuclear measurements / gamma-ray spectroscopy / germanium detector / uranium mining / MCNP6
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2018
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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