Speaker
Description
Xenon-127 is a neutron-deficient radionuclide produced from neutron activation rather than fission, for example via radiative capture on stable xenon-126. It is not an isotope actively monitored as a signature of a nuclear test, however its longer half-life (36 d), measurable nuclear decay emissions and lack of environmental background signal make it an ideal tracer radionuclide for radioxenon-related field experiments. Physics Experiment-1 (PE-1) involved the use of Xe-127 as a tracer for fission product radioxenon and was monitored in the field using a SAUNA QB system. The fielded detectors had not been previously calibrated for this radionuclide and no industry method had been published previously. To calibrate the SAUNA system for measurement of the tracer, a series of laboratory measurements were conducted on similar detector setups using isotopically pure gas. A calibration scheme was devised and compared to detector models and singles gamma spectrometry measurements, demonstrating very good agreement. Several key trends were identified from the calibration measurements, showing an efficiency dependence on the xenon gas concentration for some coincidence regions of interest in the energy matrix. An overview of the calibration work and findings are detailed.
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