Low-Temperature Detectors for High Precision Nuclear Material Analysis

Superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters are creating transformative new capabilities in nuclear material analysis, nuclear data measurements, and actinide science. With 10-50 times better energy resolution than semiconductor detectors, the development of TES microcalorimeters is intended to close the performance gap between nondestructive and destructive analysis methods. In some cases, entirely new types of measurements are possible. Extensive technology development over the past several years is now enabling the first deployed microcalorimeter instruments and quantitative performance evaluation with real-world nuclear materials. We will present an overview of new capabilities in X-ray, gamma-ray, and alpha decay energy spectroscopy enabled by this category of sensors, deployed instruments, and future directions.