A simple method for the absolute determination of uranium enrichment by high-resolution γ spectrometry

A simple method for the determination of uranium enrichment using high-resolution γ spectrometry is presented in this paper. The method relies solely on the γ-ray emission probabilities of 235U and 234mPa, and an iterative procedure for the least squares fit of a polynomial to a set of experimentally determined data. To ensure the reliability of the 234mPa γ-ray emission probabilities employed, a new determination of these probabilities was carried out using a combination of γ spectrometry and Cerenkov counting of a purified 234Th solution. Using these new data, a maximum difference of ∼5% has been found between the experimental and declared uranium enrichment in a set of solid and liquid samples containing uranium compounds.