Characterisation of nuclear fuel by spectroscopic evaluation of alpha autoradiographs

Application of Organic Polymer in the Identification of Radioactive Pu Isotopes

“…The decrease in the peak intensity of the absorption spectra with increased alpha fluence was noticeable and this was concurrent with our earlier observations. 13 It is interesting to note that the reduction in absorption of the film irradiated with Pu 238 was much higher (4.5%) as compared to that with Pu 239 (0.5%) whereas the degree of increase in fluence values was much higher with Pu 239 (52%) as compared to Pu 238 (36%). This could be attributed to the higher energy which is characteristic of Pu 238 .…”

“…Extrapolating the straight parts of the relations to the hυ-axis as carried out earlier 13 yields the corresponding direct and indirect band gaps which are illustrated in Figure 3. The calculated band gap values for both direct and indirect transitions are given in Table 1.…”

“…Spectroscopic analysis of alpha autoradiographs was found to overcome this limitation of image analysis and hence the method applicable to characterisation of thermal as well as fast reactor fuels. 13 The optical absorption method can provide information about the band structure and energy gap in crystalline and non-crystalline materials.…”