Doubly Curved Crystal Optic X-Ray Fluorescence for the Analysis of UO2 Fuel Pellets

Abstract There are many possible instrumental geometries for obtaining micro-X-ray fluorescence elemental information on materials. The use of spatial and spectral filtering is critical for elemental compositional analysis, mapping, and quantification. Nuclear materials offer an especially unique challenge during elemental analysis, as their emitted natural radiation increases detector noise. A solution to this issue is the use of doubly curved crystal optics within spectro­meters, as they not only filter out background radiation but only pass the on-axis X-ray energy of choice to the detector. As a result, there is a significant improvement in the sensitivity and detection limits afforded by the incorporation of these optics into the spectrometer. The work presented here demonstrates the applicability of a high-resolution X-ray spectrometer in the determination of the U content of UO2 fuel pellets and the improved elemental selectivity compared to other traditional, polycapillary-based, X-ray fluorescence spectrometer setups.