We report measurements of the 103-keV and 159-keV gamma ray signatures of 242Pu using microcalorimetry. This is the first observation of these gamma rays in a non-destructive measurement of an unprepared sample, and so represents an important advance in nuclear material accountancy. The measurement campaign also serves as the first demonstration of a field campaign with a portable microcalorimeter gamma-ray spectrometer. For the 103-keV gamma ray we report an improved centroid energy and emission probability.
@article{arxiv.2202.02933,
title = {Quantification of 242Pu with a Microcalorimeter Gamma Spectrometer},
author = {David J. Mercer and Ryan Winkler and Katrina E. Koehler and Daniel T. Becker and Douglas A. Bennett and Matthew H. Carpenter and Mark P. Croce and Krystal I. de Castro and Eric A. Feissle and Joseph W. Fowler and Johnathon D. Gard and John A. B. Mates and Daniel G. McNeel and Nathan J. Ortiz and Daniel Schmidt and Katherine A. Schreiber and Daniel S. Swetz and Joel N. Ullom and Leila R. Vale and Sophie L. Weidenbenner and Abigail L. Wessels},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.02933},
year = {2022}
}