Open AccessBenchmarks for GADRAS performance validation.
Author(s) -
John Mattingly,
Dean J. Mitchell,
Charles L. Rhykerd
Publication year - 2009
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/1031909
Subject(s) - benchmark (surveying) , calibration , plutonium , detector , uranium , source code , nuclear engineering , radiation , experimental data , shielded cable , computer science , physics , optics , nuclear physics , engineering , mathematics , statistics , geology , geodesy , quantum mechanics , telecommunications , operating system
The performance of the Gamma Detector Response and Analysis Software (GADRAS) was validated by comparing GADRAS model results to experimental measurements for a series of benchmark sources. Sources for the benchmark include a plutonium metal sphere, bare and shielded in polyethylene, plutonium oxide in cans, a highly enriched uranium sphere, bare and shielded in polyethylene, a depleted uranium shell and spheres, and a natural uranium sphere. The benchmark experimental data were previously acquired and consist of careful collection of background and calibration source spectra along with the source spectra. The calibration data were fit with GADRAS to determine response functions for the detector in each experiment. A one-dimensional model (pie chart) was constructed for each source based on the dimensions of the benchmark source. The GADRAS code made a forward calculation from each model to predict the radiation spectrum for the detector used in the benchmark experiment. The comparisons between the GADRAS calculation and the experimental measurements are excellent, validating that GADRAS can correctly predict the radiation spectra for these well-defined benchmark sources