Representing the uncertainty structure of the factorial moments of (252)~Cf and (238,240,242)~pu

摘要

Event triggered passive neutron time-correlation autocorrelation analysis is a widely used technique for the nondestructive assay of Pu in international nuclear safeguards. We are interested m how (252)~Cf may be used as a calibration surrogate for Pu samples because representative Pu items are rarely available and (252)~Cf is far easier to obtain and use than Pu This raises the question of how uncertainties in basic nuclear data might impact the metrology chain. There is currently no comprehensive and coherent framework to address this question This work represents the first attempt to create a suitable statistical model of the neutron emission parameters (factorial moments, delayed neutrons, and (24O)~Pu-effective weighting coefficients) including the correlation structure, which can be used to propagate nuclear data uncertainties through a neutron multiplicity counter analysis.