Proposal for an advanced hybrid K-edge/XRF densitometry (HKED) using a monochromatic photon beam from laser Compton scattering

The general purpose Monte Carlo electron-gamma shower computer code (EGS5) was used to obtain the U, Np, and Pu X-ray response from the hybrid K-edge/XRF densitometry (HKED). In the present simulation, we adopt a monochromatic, linearly polarized photon beam generated by using inverse Compton scattering of laser light with high-energy electrons from an energy recovery linac. The simulation has been carried out under various conditions of the U, Np, and Pu concentrations to investigate the effect of counting rates as well as counting precision. The results of the simulation show that the assessment time for low concentration Pu input solutions is reduced by improving the signal-to-background ratios. It is also shown that the Np concentration is determined with the counting precision of 0.67–1.8% in standard deviation during 1 h live time measurement for a 3N HNO3 sample solution (1.1–1.3 g/cm2) including U (10–200 g/L), Np (0.1 g/L), and Pu (10 g/L).