Evaluation of laboratory detection systems for fission product detection

Short lived fission product spectra have been created to evaluate several instrumentation approaches for laboratory measurements of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Modest germanium detectors of several types and in shields of varying background have been used to acquire daily spectra from a hypothetical CTBT detection scenario: A group of sources was designed to simulate a CTBT sample acquired at continental distance from a small, atmospheric explosion. These spectra have been analyzed to determine what additional confidence may be expected from confirmatory laboratory measurements. The performance of the diverse group of detectors was estimated in several ways. In addition, the number of isotopes detected was tabulated for certain detectors as a function of source strength. These performance estimations should provide a clear indication of the trade-off between cost and measurement quality.