Beryllium characterization in powders containing plutonium by photoneutron activation analysis using a 124Sb gamma source

The possibility to determine the amount of beryllium in cans containing a mixed powder of iron and plutonium by counting photoneutrons is investigated with Monte Carlo simulation. The sensitivity of the optimized measurement cell is larger than 3000 s−1 wt% of Be with a 3.7E10 Bq source of 124Sb. A heterogeneous distribution of beryllium induces a 30 % relative uncertainty, which dominates the total uncertainty, the relative counting statistics being lower than 1 % when the 124Sb source activity exceeds 3.7E9 Bq.