DOE OSTI2015
Accurate, rugged, and reliable radiation detection systems are important for area and environmental monitoring applications. The desire for spectroscopic capability has increased in monitoring aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle to provide fast characterization of the radiation profile of a situation, such as the planned or unplanned release of material. The reduction or elimination of having to conduct sampling for laboratory analysis can result in significant cost savings for an industry, government agency, or regulatory body. A new system, comprised of a NaI:Tl scintillator and a G-M tube, has been designed and tested, taking into account the following end-user requirements: ease-of-use, capability to network and supervise multiple units, compact form factor, low power consumption, versatility, and stability. The detector sizes were selected to accommodate a dose rate up to 1 Sv/hr. Several algorithms and analysis routines have been developed to incorporate these key needs without sacrificing on accuracy, dynamic range, nuclide identification, and sensitivity. This presentation will introduce the major hardware and software components of the platform, as well as the user interface and data analysis workflow. Key features of the hardware include an environmentally robust housing, low power signal processing electronics, patented LED-based gain stabilization, and an embedded processor for unattended instrument management and data analysis. New and improved algorithms for determining scintillator gamma dose rates, total integrated dose, and nuclide identification will be introduced. The two detector elements were modeled with MCNP and validated experimentally. The results of the radiological testing shall be presented including energy resolution, throughput, dose response, and minimum detectable activities. The dose response has been evaluated in simulations and with measurements to ensure accurate response with respect to energy spectrum of the dose field and direction of the incident radiation. Spectroscopy evaluations, such as nuclide detection probability and false alarm rates, were performed and comparisons to existing algorithms shall also be presented. (authors)
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗