Low-level laboratory measurement of xenon radionuclides: Electron-photon versus photon measurements

O Delaune; A Cagniant; P Gross; G Douysset; J-P Fontaine; G Le Petit

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.07.021

Low-level laboratory measurement of xenon radionuclides: Electron-photon versus photon measurements

Appl Radiat Isot. 2018 Apr:134:450-454. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.07.021. Epub 2017 Jul 13.

Authors

O Delaune¹, A Cagniant², P Gross², G Douysset², J-P Fontaine², G Le Petit²

Affiliations

¹ CEA, DAM, DIF, F-91297 Arpajon, France. Electronic address: olivier.delaune@cea.fr.
² CEA, DAM, DIF, F-91297 Arpajon, France.

PMID: 28743410
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.07.021

Abstract

Radioactive xenon (mainly ^131mXe, ¹³³Xe, ^133mXe and ¹³⁵Xe) are tracked as markers of nuclear weapons testing. The CEA has developed the PIPSBox, a measurement cell able to detect electrons emitted by xenon nuclides. Combined with an ultra-low background γ spectrometer, electron detection capacities allow reaching minimum detectable activities (MDA) for a 3-day long measurement of about 0.5mBq for the four xenon radionuclides. Compared to a classical measurement cell, MDAs are improved by a factor of 2-4.