Evaluation of linac-based delayed gamma neutron activation technique for copper characterization in scrap metal by means of Monte Carlo modeling

Delayed gamma rays following neutron activation, induced by a 6 MeV linear electron accelerator (linac) coupled to deuterium oxide photo-neutron conversion target, are simulated with MCNP6.1. The 1039 keV copper activation peak is detected 33 % relative efficiency hyper pure germanium detector. Two distributions were assessed for 2-hour irradiation followed counting configuration. Homogeneously distributed in planar scrap metal matrix shows 65 Cu detection limits of 10.01 g. A solid sample, modeled at five distinct positions the matrix, exhibits from 8.27 14.27 grams.