Non-destructive diagnostics of thin fissile layers

We have developed a non-destructive nuclear technique useful for the diagnostic of thin layers of fissile element. The method is based on the correlation between the fission fragment energy losses and the distortion of the energy spectrum of the alpha-particles emerging from the layer itself. We have also measured the sputtering rate of atoms from a fission layer which can be the cause of an important degradation in a working apparatus.