Effects of Lump Characteristics on Plutonium Self Absorption Correction Methods

An evaluation study has been undertaken to assess the robustness of several published Pu self-absorption correction methods against variation in size, shape, density etc. for use in the gamma assay of nuclear waste. The correction methods studied are a numerical plutonium self absorption correction (PuSAC) technique, the Fleissner 2-line, Fleissner 3-line and Infinite Energy Extrapolation methods with both linear and polynomial extrapolation to 1/E = 0. The performance of these methods has been compared for a limited set of measured encapsulated PuO2 sources plus a range of modelled unencapsulated Pu lumps. An indication of the magnitude of the uncertainties of the numerical PuSAC method has been determined for cases of blind assays where the Pu material, shape and distribution are unknown with the aim of ultimately applying it to real waste. The importance of the range of Pu lumps used in the baseline modelled dataset has been examined. Data are presented to illustrate how the uncertainties in the method are affected by the shape, composition, density, number and mass distribution of Pu particles in a sample for a given modelled base dataset.