New Experimentally Observable Gamma-ray Emissions from 241Am Nuclear Decay

Abstract

With the high resolution of microcalorimeter detectors, previously unresolvable gamma-ray lines are now clearly resolvable. A careful measurement of Am-241 decay with a large array of gamma-ray microcalorimeters has revealed never before seen or predicted gamma lines at 207.72 +/- 0.02 keV and 208.21 +/- 0.01 keV. These results were made possible by new microwave-multiplexing readout to increase the array size and improved analysis algorithms to eliminate spectral artifacts. We suggest nuclear levels from which these gamma-rays might originate and calculate branching ratios for these transitions from measurements of both mixed Pu-Am standards and a pure Am-241 source. These results have implications for nuclear material safeguards and accounting, particularly for microcalorimeter gamma spectrometers, which are now being adopted in nuclear safeguards analytical laboratories.