Evaluation of linac-based delayed gamma neutron activation technique for copper characterization in scrap metal by means of Monte Carlo modeling

Roberto de Stefano (1) , Aly Elayeb (1) , Adrien Sari (1) , Hamid Makil (1) , Philippe Russo (2) , Frédérick Carrel (1)

1 LCAE - Laboratoire Capteurs et Architectures Electroniques
2 ArcelorMittal

Delayed gamma rays following neutron activation, induced by a 6 MeV linear electron accelerator (linac) coupled to a deuterium oxide photo-neutron conversion target, are simulated with MCNP6.1. The 1039 keV copper activation gamma peak is detected with a 33 % relative efficiency hyper pure germanium detector. Two copper distributions were assessed for a 2-hour irradiation followed by a 2-hour counting configuration. Homogeneously distributed copper in a planar scrap metal matrix shows 65Cu detection limits of 10.01 g. A solid copper sample, modeled at five distinct positions in the planar scrap metal matrix, exhibits detection limits from 8.27 to 14.27 grams.

Keywords: Delayed gamma rays; instrumentation; nuclear instrumentation; Neutron activation analysis; gamma-rays; ionizing radiation; radioactivity; linac; copper; MCNP6; simulation; particle transport; detection limits; detector

Domains: Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det]

Roberto de Stefano, Aly Elayeb, Adrien Sari, Hamid Makil, Philippe Russo, et al.. Evaluation of linac-based delayed gamma neutron activation technique for copper characterization in scrap metal by means of Monte Carlo modeling. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2022, ⟨10.1016/j.nima.2022.167441⟩. ⟨cea-03813392⟩