• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.317-323
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• 2014

Odyssey, one of the NASA's Mars exploration program and SELENE (Kaguya), a Japanese lunar orbiting spacecraft have a payload of Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) for analyzing radioactive chemical elements of the atmosphere and the surface. In these days, gamma-ray spectroscopy with a High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector has been widely used for the activity measurements of natural radionuclides contained in the soil of the Earth. The energy spectra obtained by the HPGe detectors have been generally analyzed by means of the Window Analysis (WA) method. In this method, activity concentrations are determined by using the net counts of energy window around individual peaks. Meanwhile, an alternative method, the so-called Full Spectrum Analysis (FSA) method uses count numbers not only from full-absorption peaks but from the contributions of Compton scattering due to gamma-rays. Consequently, while it takes a substantial time to obtain a statistically significant result in the WA method, the FSA method requires a much shorter time to reach the same level of the statistical significance. This study shows the validation results of FSA method. We have compared the concentration of radioactivity of $^{40}K$, $^{232}Th$ and $^{238}U$ in the soil measured by the WA method and the FSA method, respectively. The gamma-ray spectrum of reference materials (RGU and RGTh, KCl) and soil samples were measured by the 120% HPGe detector with cosmic muon veto detector. According to the comparison result of activity concentrations between the FSA and the WA, we could conclude that FSA method is validated against the WA method. This study implies that the FSA method can be used in a harsh measurement environment, such as the gamma-ray measurement in the Moon, in which the level of statistical significance is usually required in a much shorter data acquisition time than the WA method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.4688-4697
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• 2024

Accurate nuclide identification in γ-spectrum analysis of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste with high-purity germanium detectors necessitates initial forced fitting with a nuclide library, yet inaccuracies in library data may lead to misidentification and missing nuclides. To this end, background clipping strategies were hereby analyzed, and a novel deconvolution spectrum analysis method was proposed, which utilized continuous wavelet transform for peak searching and Gaussian first-order derivative quadratic convolution for calculating peak width. Furthermore, to effectively realize the nuclide identification and peak area calculation, a response filter function model was established through the peak shape calibration. By eliminating the need for nuclide library parameter settings prior to overlapping peak separation, the issue of inaccurate matching arising from reliance on the precision of the nuclide library was addressed. Moreover, spectrum analysis experiments were carried out on standard point sources and 200 L drums, and the results were compared and analyzed using GammaVision. Compared to the GammaVision results set by the accurate nuclide library, the area error of strong peaks decreased from 27.5 % to 4.82 %, while that of weak peaks witnessed a decline from 49.98 % to 27.5 %. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed method was verified using the Pakistan Nuclear Library.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.1771-1776
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• 2020

Adverse effects in the measured gamma spectrum caused by radioactive statistical fluctuations, gamma ray scattering, and electronic noise can be reduced by energy spectrum denoising. Wavelet threshold denoising can be used to perform multi-scale and multi-resolution analysis on noisy signals with small root mean square errors and high signal-to-noise ratios. However, in traditional wavelet threshold denoising methods, there are signal oscillations in hard threshold denoising and constant deviations in soft threshold denoising. An improved wavelet threshold calculation method and threshold processing function are proposed in this paper. The improved threshold calculation method takes into account the influence of the number of wavelet decomposition layers and reduces the deviation caused by the inaccuracy of the threshold. The improved threshold processing function can be continuously guided, which solves the discontinuity of the traditional hard threshold function, avoids the constant deviation caused by the traditional soft threshold method. The examples show that the proposed method can accurately denoise and preserves the characteristic signals well in the gamma energy spectrum.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.291-309
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• 1973

Exposure rates due to leakage gamma-rays from operating reactors TRIGA Mark II and III were measured in a horizontal plane by means of scintillation spectrometry using a 3"$\times$3" cylindrical Nal(T1) detector associated with a 400 channel pulse height analyzer under varied conditions of reactor operation. In determining exposure rate due to the leakage gamma-rays at each point of measurement, Moriuchi's spectrum-exposure rate conversion theory was applied instead of using conventional responce matrix method which necessitates very complicated procedures to convert a spectrum into exposure rate. The results show that a basic pattern of "typical" spectrum of the reactor leakage gamma-rays is neither affected by thermal output of the reactor, nor influenced by overall attenuation in radiation intensity. It was indicated that he attenuation of the leakage gamma-rays in air in terms of exposure rate as a whole follows an exponential law, and the total exposure rate due to the leakage gamma-rays at a certain point is nearly proportional to thermal output of the reactor. The complexity in spectrum measured for a movable core reactor, TRIGA Mark III, was analyzed through spectrum resolution, and proper judgement of the leakage gamma-rays in a complex spectrum was discussed.ctrum was discussed.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.69-81
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• 2022

The method of measuring and classifying the energy category of neutrons directly using raw data acquired through a CZT detector is not satisfactory, in terms of accuracy and efficiency, because of its poor energy resolution and low measurement efficiency. Moreover, this method of measuring and analyzing the characteristics of low-energy or low-activity gamma-ray sources might be not accurate and efficient in the case of neutrons because of various factors, such as the noise of the CZT detector itself and the influence of environmental radiation. We have therefore developed an efficient method of analyzing radiation characteristics using a neutron and gamma-ray analysis algorithm for the rapid and clear identification of the type, energy, and radioactivity of gamma-ray sources as well as the detection and classification of the energy category (fast or thermal neutrons) of neutron sources, employing raw data acquired through a CZT detector. The neutron analysis algorithm is based on the fact that in the energy-spectrum channel of 558.6 keV emitted in the nuclear reaction ¹¹³Cd + ¹n → ¹¹⁴Cd + in the CZT detector, there is a notable difference in detection information between a CZT detector without a PE modulator and a CZT detector with a PE modulator, but there is no significant difference between the two detectors in other energy-spectrum channels. In addition, the gamma-ray analysis algorithm uses the difference in the detection information of the CZT detector between the unique characteristic energy-spectrum channel of a gamma-ray source and other channels. This efficient method of analyzing radiation characteristics is expected to be useful for the rapid radiation detection and accurate information collection on radiation sources, which are required to minimize radiation damage and manage accidents in national disaster situations, such as large-scale radioactivity leak accidents at nuclear power plants or nuclear material handling facilities.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.341-345
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• 2002

Nanoparticles of $Fe_2O_3$ with a mean particle size of 4-30 nm have been prepared by a pulsed wire evaporation method, and its structural and magnetic properties were studied by SQUID magnetometer and Mossbauer spectroscopy. From the main peak intensity of XRD and absorption rate of Mossbauer spectrum, the amounts of $\gamma-Fe_2O_3$ and $\alpha-Fe_2O_3$ in as-prepared sample are about 70% and 30%, respectively. The coercivity (53 Oe) and the saturation magnetization (14 emu/g) are about 20% of those of the bulk $\gamma-Fe_2O_3$. The low value of coercivity and saturation magnetization indicate that the $\gamma-Fe_2O_3$ phase nearly shows the spin glass-like behavior. Analysis of the set of Mossbauer spectrum indicates a distribution of magnetic hyperfine fields due to the particle size distribution yielding 20 nm of average particle size. The magnetic hyperfine parameters are consistent with values reported of bulk $\gamma-Fe_2O_3$ and $alpha-Fe_2O_3$. A quadrupole line on the center of spectrum represents of superparamagnetic phase of $\gamma-Fe_2O_3$ with a mean particle size of 7 nm or below.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.567-572
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• 2011

A sensitivity analysis of the methods used to evaluate the transport properties of a CdZnTe detector was performed using two different radiations (${\alpha}$ particle and gamma-ray) emitted from an $^{241}Am$ source. The mobility-lifetime products of the electron-hole pair in a planar CZT detector ($5{\times}5{\times}2\;mm^3$) were determined by fitting the peak position as a function of biased voltage data to the Hecht equation. To verify the accuracy of these products derived from ${\alpha}$ particles and low-energy gamma-rays, an energy spectrum considering the transport property of the CZT detector was simulated through a combination of the deposited energy and the charge collection efficiency at a specific position. It was found that the shaping time of the amplifier module significantly affects the determination of the (${\mu}{\tau}$) products; the ${\alpha}$ particle method was stabilized with an increase in the shaping time and was less sensitive to this change compared to when the gamma-ray method was used. In the case of the simulated energy spectrum with transport properties evaluated by the ${\alpha}$ particle method, the peak position and tail were slightly different from the measured result, whereas the energy spectrum derived from the low-energy gamma-ray was in good agreement with the experimental results. From these results, it was confirmed that low-energy gamma-rays are more useful when seeking to obtain the transport properties of carriers than ${\alpha}$ particles because the methods that use gamma-rays are less influenced by the surface condition of the CZT detector. Furthermore, the analysis system employed in this study, which was configured by a combination of Monte Carlo simulation and the Hecht model, is expected to be highly applicable to the study of the characteristics of CZT detectors.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.3-14
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• 1986

A stud has been carried out for figuring out real photon spectrum from an observed gamma-ray spectrum by means of response matrix method, which is known one of the relatively convenient method for the estimation of exposure rate of a complex gamma ray field in comparison with graphical analysis and least square fitting of the measured spectrum. A 3'${\times}$3' cylindrical Nal(T1) scintillation detector in association with multichannel pulse height analyzer and six reference gamma ray sources covering the photon energy range of 0.05 to 2.0 MeV were used. In dividing the energy region for the construction of response matrix, two different approaches were attempted. One is dividing the entire energy region of interest into 20 bins, one of which corresponds to a width of 0.1 MeV to form $20{\times}20$ matrix, and another is dividing the 2 MeV region into 14 bins to form $14{\times}14$ matrix consists of $0.1(MeV)^{1/2}$ intervals assuming the resolution of the detector is dependent on square root of the incident photon energy. Inversion of thus constructed matrices was performed by a computor(P-E8/32) using the program attached to the end of this paper. The resultant exposure rates obtained by this method were in good agreement, within 10% with those calculated by ordinary formula widely used for a gamma-ray field of known energy and flux. It is concluded that the photen flux obtained by the response matrix constructed under the assumption of $E^{1/2}$ dependence is more realistic than that obtained by the matrix consist of identical energy bins in dosimetrical point of view.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.10
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• pp.4390-4396
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• 2024

The response of an anti-Compton phoswich detector to gamma rays was investigated using Monte-Carlo method, and the pulses from different crystal cases, including gamma deposition only in the LaBr3(Ce) or CsI(Tl) crystal and coincidence in both crystals, were analyzed. A novel pulse discrimination method for gamma deposition events based on wavelet transform analysis, called SSD (Scale Shape Discrimination), was developed in this study. Compared to the traditional PSD (Pulse Shape Discrimination) method, SSD has the advantage of transforming one-dimensional pulses in the time-domain into two-dimensional time-frequency spectra, providing the more useful features for pulse discrimination. The performances of the Compton suppression and Full-energy peak loss using PSD and SSD methods was studied. The results show that the Compton suppression factor I_PSD = 5.12 and I_SSD = 5.32, and FEP loss factor PL_PSD = 0.0554 and PL_SSD = 0.0587. Meanwhile, the influences of the cutoff values for pulse discrimination on the results of I and PL with different method were analyzed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1052-1060
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• 2023

The airborne radiation monitoring has been used in geophysics for more than forty years and now it also has its important role in emergency monitoring. The aircraft background and the cosmic gamma-rays contribute to the measured gamma spectrum on the aircraft board. This adverse effect should be eliminated before the data processing. The paper describes two semiparametric methods to estimate the full spectrum aircraft background and cosmic gamma-ray contribution from spectra measured at altitudes where terrestrial contribution is negligible. The methods only assume to know possible peak positions in spectra and their full width at half maximum, that can be easily obtained e.g. from terrestrial measurement. The methods were applied to real experimental data acquired on Mi-17 and Bell 412 helicopter boards. The IRIS airborne gamma-ray spectrometer, with 4×4 L NaI(Tl) crystals, produced by Pico Envirotec Inc., Canada, was used on helicopters' boards. To obtain valid estimate of the aircraft background and the cosmic contribution, the measurements over sea and large water areas were carried out. However, the satisfactory results over inland were also achieved comparing with those acquired over large water areas.