• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제43권4호
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• pp.137-142
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• 2018

Background: Gamma-ray detectors having a thin window of a material with low atomic number can increase the true coincidence summing effects for radionuclides emitting X-rays or gamma-rays. This effect can make efficiency calibration or spectrum analysis more complicated. In this study, a Cu shield was tested as an X-ray filter to neglect the true coincidence summing effect by X-rays and gamma-rays in gamma-ray spectrometry, in order to simplify gamma-ray energy spectrum analysis. Materials and Methods: A Cu shield was designed and applied to an n-type high-purity germanium detector having an $X-{\gamma}$ summing effect during efficiency calibration. This was tested using a commercial, certified mixed gamma-ray source. The feasibility of a Cu shield was evaluated by comparing efficiency calibration results with and without the shield. Results and Discussion: In this study, the thickness of a Cu shield needed to avoid true coincidence summing effects due to $X-{\gamma}$ was tested and determined to be 1 mm, considering the detection efficiency desired for higher energy. As a result, the accuracy of the detection efficiency calibration was improved by more than 13% by reducing $X-{\gamma}$ summing. Conclusion: The $X-{\gamma}$ summing effect should be considered, along with ${\gamma}-{\gamma}$ summing, when a detection efficiency calibration is implemented and appropriate shielding material can be useful for simplifying analysis of the gamma-ray energy spectra.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.97-104
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• 2004

NIPS 시스템은 중성자 핵반응 결과 방출되는 즉발 감마선을 정량적으로 측정하는 장치이며 고체 및 액체 폐기물 중 존재하는 다양한 원소를 비파괴적으로 분석할 수 있는 장점이 있다. 본 연구에서는 NIPS 시스템에 이용된 고순도반도체 검출기의 계측효율을 $^{l33}$Ba 및 $^{152}$Eu 방사성 동위원소 선원과 $^{35}$ Cl(n, ${\gamma}$)$^{36}$ Cl 핵반응 시 발생되는 즉발감마선을 이용하여 80 keV에서 8 MeV까지 넓은 영역에 대하여 구하였다. $^{35}$ Cl(n, ${\gamma}$)$^{36}$ Cl 핵반응을 이용한 고에너지 감마선의 계측효율은 즉발감마선의 방사능 값을 정확히 알 수 없기 때문에 저 에너지 영역에서 정확히 알고 있는 검출기 효율곡선에 규격화시켜 전 에너지 영역에서의 효율보정곡선을 구하였다. 또한 KCl 표준용액에 $^{252}$ Cf 중성자 선원을 조사시켜 표준용액으로부터 방출되는 즉발 감마선을 고순도반도체 검출기로 측정하고 광대역 계측효율 곡선을 이용하여 수용액 시료에서의 평균 열중성자 속을 예측하였다. NIPS 측정시스템은 주변 재료 물질의 핵반응으로 방출되는 감마선 background를 줄이기 위해 두 개의 고순도반도체 검출기를 이용한 동시계수 장치가 고안되었으며, 동시계수 모드에서의 계측효율도 함께 고려되었으며, 표준선원을 이용하여 전 계수 또는 동시계수모드에서의 background에 대한 측정감도를 비교하였다.다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권5호
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• pp.1754-1759
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• 2022

The activity of gamma-ray emitting nuclides is calculated assuming that each gamma-ray is detected individually; thus, the magnitude of the coincidence summing signal must be considered during activity calculations. Here, the correction factor for the coincidence summing effect was calculated, and the detection efficiencies of two HPGe detectors were compared. The CANBERRA Inc. GC4018 high-purity Ge detector provided an estimate for the peak-to-total ratio using a point source to determine the coincidence summing correction factor. The ORTEC Inc. GEM60 high-purity Ge detector uses EFFTRAN in LVis to obtain the parameters of the detector and source model and the gamma-gamma and gamma-X match estimates, in order to determine the coincidence summing correction factor. Nuclide analyses, radioactivity comparisons, and analyses of reference material samples were performed utilizing certified reference materials to accurately determine the detection efficiencies. For both Co-60 and Y-88, the detection efficiency for a point source increased by an average of at least 12-13%, whereas the detection efficiency determined using LVis increased by an average of at least 13-15%. The calculated radioactivity values of the certified reference material and reference material samples were accurate to within 3% and 6% of the measured values, respectively.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1998년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(2)
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• pp.464-469
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• 1998

A coincidence gamma-ray spectroscopy method was applied to reduce the background radioactivity for measuring the activity of radioisotopes in a sample in the presence of environmental natural radioactivity. A HPGe detector was used for the coincident spectrum as a main detector and a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector for gating purposes as an associated detector. For coincidence spectroscopy the whole energy spectrum of associated detector was used instead of gate signals. The coincident events obtained from the gating spectrum was evaluated by a coincidence computer program in this study instead of timing circuit. In this work, the background of detection environment was reduced to factor 100 and peaks to be determined was reduced to factor 30 using the coincidence gamma-ray spectroscopy.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권6호
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• pp.1266-1270
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• 2020

A code is developed to correct for the coincidence summing effect in detecting a voluminous gamma source, and this code is applied to a¹⁵²Eu standard source as a test case. The source is 1000 mL of liquid in a cylindrical shape. To calculate the coincidence summing effect, the cylindrical source is considered as 10(radial) × 8(height) sectional sources. For each sectional source, the peak efficiency and total efficiency are obtained by Monte Carlo simulation at each energy for 10 energies between 50 keV and 2000 keV. The efficiencies of each sector are then expressed as polynomials of gamma energy. To calculate the correction coefficients for the coincidence summing effect, the KORSUM code is used after modification. The magnitudes of correction are 4%-17% for the standard ¹⁵²Eu source measured in this study. The relative deviation of 4.7% before the coincidence correction is reduced to 0.8% after the correction is applied to the efficiency based on the measured gamma line. Hence, this study has shown that a new method has been developed that is applicable for correcting the coincidence effect in a voluminous source, and the method is applied to the measured data of a standard ¹⁵²Eu cylinder source.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2004년도 학술논문집
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• pp.433-433
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• 2004

Neutron induced prompt gamma-ray spectroscopy (NIPS) system measures the prompt gamma-ray, emitting by the interaction of a neutron with various materials. This system will be of great benefit to scientists worldwide, since it provides the non-destructive measurement of many elements in either solid or liquid wastes. A NIPS facility has been developed in Nuclear Chemistry Research Division, at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) with the aim of analyzing the major component elements in both aqueous and solid samples.(omitted)

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권12호
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• pp.4472-4476
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• 2023

In this study, it has been shown that the true coincidence summing correction factor can be obtained for the first time using the PHITS Monte Carlo program. Determining this correction factor using different methods and tools in each laboratory to increase the possibility of achieving high-efficiency measurement conditions is still popular in gamma-ray spectrometry. By using ¹³³Ba, ¹⁵²Eu, ¹³⁴Cs, and ⁶⁰Co point sources, the true coincidence summing factor was investigated in both near and far counting geometries for 15 different energy values. GESPECOR software was used to validate the results obtained with PHITS. A remarkable agreement was obtained between PHITS and GESPECOR, with a discrepancy of less than 3%. With this study, a new tool has been proposed to obtain the true coincidence summing factor, which is one of the significant correction factors investigated/calculated in gamma-ray spectrometric studies.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제41권4호
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• pp.328-332
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• 2016

Background: Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a new radiation therapy. In BNCT, there exists some very critical problems that should be solved. One of the severest problems is that the treatment effect cannot be known during BNCT in real time. We are now developing a SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) system (BNCT-SPECT), with a cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor detector. BNCT-SPECT can obtain the BNCT treatment effect by measuring 478 keV gamma-rays emitted from the excited state of $^7Li$ nucleus created by $^{10}B(n,{\alpha})$ $^7Li$ reaction. In the previous studies, we investigated the feasibility of the BNCT-SPECT system. As a result, the S/N ratio did not meet the criterion of S/N > 1 because deterioration of the S/N ratio occurred caused by the influence of Compton scattering especially due to capture gamma-rays of hydrogen. Materials and Methods: We thus produced an arrayed detector with two CdTe crystals to test cross talk phenomenon and to examine an anti-coincidence detection possibility. For more precise analysis for the anti-coincidence detection, we designed and made a collimator having a similar performance to the real BNCT-SPECT. Results and Discussion: We carried out experiments with the collimator to examine the effect of cross talk of scattering gamma-rays between CdTe elements more practically. As a result of measurement the coincidence events were successfully extracted. Conclusion: We are now planning to carry out evaluation of coincidence rate from the measurement and comparison of it with the numerical calculations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권10호
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• pp.3421-3430
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• 2021

Spherical NaI(Tl) detectors are used in gamma-ray spectrometry, where the gamma emissions come from the nuclei with energies in the range from a few keV up to 10 MeV. A spherical detector is aimed to give a good response to photons, which depends on their direction of travel concerning the detector center. Some distortions in the response of a gamma-ray detector with a different geometry can occur because of the non-uniform position of the source from the detector surface. The present work describes the calibration of a NaI(Tl) spherical detector using both an experimental technique and a numerical simulation method (NSM). The NSM is based on an efficiency transfer method (ETM, calculating the effective solid angle, the total efficiency, and the full-energy peak efficiency). Besides, there is a high probability for a source-to-detector distance less than 15 cm to have pulse coincidence summing (CS), which may occur when two successive photons of different energies from the same source are detected within a very short response time. Therefore, γ-γ ray CS factors are calculated numerically for a ¹⁵²Eu radioactive cylindrical source. The CS factors obtained are applied to correct the measured efficiency values for the radioactive volumetric source at different energies. The results show a good agreement between the NSM and the experimental values (after correction with the CS factors).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권2호
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• pp.423-428
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• 2022

Very low contents (in the range of 10^-9 g/g) of Ir in mantle-derived rock samples (komatiites) were non-destructively determined by INAA coupled with coincidence gamma-ray spectrometry using 16 Ge detectors. Aliquots of the same samples were analyzed by NiS fire-assay ICP-MS for Ir and other platinum group elements. Because the INAA procedure used in this study is non-destructive and is almost free from spectral interference in gamma-ray spectrometry, the INAA values of Ir contents obtained in this study can be highly reliable. Iridium values obtained by ICP-MS were consistent with the INAA values, implying that the ICP-MS values of Ir obtained in this study are equally reliable. Under the present experimental conditions, detection limits were estimated to be 1 pg/g, which corresponds to 0.1 pg for a sample mass of 0.1 g. These levels can be even lowered by an order of magnitude, if necessary, which cannot be achieved by ICP-MS carried out in this study.