Low-Energy Gamma-ray Spectroscopy (LEGS) is a nondestructive assay (NDA) technique developed in the 1980s. In 1999, it was modified to include a physical-based model for the energy dependent efficiency. It uses the gamma rays in the energy range from approximately 30 keV to 210 keV, except the 100-keV region. This energy region provides intense, well-separated gamma rays from the principal isotopes of plutonium. For applications involving small quantities (mg to g) of freshly separated plutonium in various chemical forms, it is ideally suited for accurate real-time or near real-time isotopic analysis. Since the last modification, LEGS has been incorporated into the FRAM code (Fixed-energy Response-function Analysis with Multiple efficiency), version 4. FRAM v4 is capable of analyzing the peaks in the whole energy range from 30 keV to 1 MeV, including the X-ray region. The new capability of analyzing the peaks in the 100-keV region greatly enhances the plutonium analysis in the 30 keV to 210 keV ranges of the traditional LEGS. We now can analyze both the freshly separated and aged plutonium with greater accuracy.

Low-Energy Gamma-ray Spectroscopy (LEGS) is a nondestructive assay (NDA) technique developed in the 1980s. In 1999, it was modified to include a physical-based model for the energy dependent efficiency. It uses the gamma rays in the energy range from approximately 30 keV to 210 keV, except the 100-keV region. This energy region provides intense, well-separated gamma rays from the principal isotopes of plutonium. For applications involving small quantities (mg to g) of freshly separated plutonium in various chemical forms, it is ideally suited for accurate real-time or near real-time isotopic analysis. Since the last modification, LEGS has been incorporated into the FRAM code (Fixed-energy Response-function Analysis with Multiple efficiency), version 4. FRAM v4 is capable of analyzing the peaks in the whole energy range from 30 keV to 1 MeV, including the X-ray region. The new capability of analyzing the peaks in the 100-keV region greatly enhances the plutonium analysis in the 30 keV to 2 10 keV ranges of the traditional LEGS. We now can analyze both the freshly separated and aged plutonium with greater accuracy.

The isotopic analysis code Fixed-energy Response-function Analysis with Multiple efficiency (FRAM)1,2 has been proven to successfully analyze plutonium spectra taken with a portable CdTe detector with Peltier cooling, the first results of this kind for a noncryogenic detector. 3 These are the first wide-range plutonium gamma-ray isotopics analysis results obtained with other than Ge spectrometers. The CdTe spectrometer measured small plutonium reference samples in reasonable count times, covering the range from low to high burnup. This paper describes further testing of FRAM with two CdTe detectors of different sizes and resolutions using different analog and digital, portable multichannel analyzers (MCAs).

The isotopic analysis code Fixed-energy Response-function Analysis with Multiple efficiency (FRAM) employs user-editable parameter sets to analyze a broad range of sample types. This report presents new parameter files, based upon a new set of plutonium branding ratios, which give more accurate isotope results than the current parameter files that use FRAM.

The Fixed-Energy Response-Function Analysis with Multiple Efficiency (FRAM) code was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory to measure the gamma-ray spectrometry of the isotopic composition of plutonium, uranium, and other actinides. They have studied and identified two different kinds of errors from FRAM analysis: random and systematic. The random errors come mainly from statistics and are easily determined. The systematic errors can come from a variety of sources and can be very difficult to determine. The authors carefully examined the FRAM analytical results of the archival plutonium data and of the data specifically acquired for this isotopic uncertainty analysis project, and found the relationship between the systematic errors and other parameters. They determined that the FRAM's systematic errors could be expressed as functions of the peak resolution and shape, region of analysis, and burnup (for plutonium) or enrichment (for uranium). All other parameters such as weight, matrix material, shape, size, container, electronics, detector, input rate, etc., contribute little to the systematic error or they contribute to the peak resolution and shape and then their contributions can be determined from the peak resolution and shape.

FRAM is the acronym for Fixed-energy Response-function Analysis with Multiple efficiency. This software was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory originally for plutonium isotopic analysis. Later, it was adapted for uranium isotopic analysis in addition to plutonium. It is a code based on a self-calibration using several gamma-ray peaks for determining the isotopic ratios. The versatile-parameter database structure governs all facets of the data analysis. User editing of the parameter sets allows great flexibility in handling data with different isotopic distributions, interfering isotopes, and different acquisition parameters such as energy calibration and detector type.