• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.781-790
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• 2012

The HyperGam program was developed for the analysis of complex HPGe ${\gamma}$-ray spectra. The previous version of HyperGam was mainly limited to the analysis of ${\gamma}$-ray peaks and the manual logging of the result. In this study, it is specifically developed into a tool for the isotopic analysis of spectra. The newly developed features include nuclide identification and activity determination. An algorithm for nuclide identification was developed to identify the peaks in the spectrum by considering the yield, efficiency, energy and peak area for the ${\gamma}$-ray lines emitted from the radionuclide. The detailed performance of nuclide identification and activity determination was accessed using the IAEA 2002 set of test spectra. By analyzing the test spectra, the numbers of radionuclides identified truly (true hit), falsely (false hit) or missed (misses) were counted and compared with the results from the IAEA 2002 tests. The determined activities of the radionuclides were also compared for four test spectra of several samples. The result of the performance test is promising in comparison with those of the well-known software packages for ${\gamma}$-ray spectrum analysis.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.481-487
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• 2020

Radiation measurement technology has steadily improved and its usage is expanding in various industries such as nuclear medicine, security search, satellite, nondestructive testing, environmental industries and the domain of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Especially, the simultaneous measurements of gamma rays and neutrons can be even more critical for nuclear safety management of spent nuclear fuel and monitoring of the nuclear material. A semiconductor detector comprising cadmium, zinc, and tellurium (CZT) enables to detect gamma-rays due to the significant atomic weight of the elements via immediate neutron and gamma-ray detection. Semiconductor sensors might be used for nuclear safety management by monitoring nuclear materials and spent nuclear fuel with high spatial resolution as well as providing real-time measurements. We aim to introduce a portable nuclide-analysis device that enables the simultaneous measurements of neutrons and gamma rays using a CZT sensor. The detector has a high density and wide energy band gap, and thus exhibits highly sensitive physical characteristics and characteristics are required for performing neutron and gamma-ray detection. Portable nuclide-analysis device is used on NPP-decommissioning sites or the purpose of nuclear nonproliferation, it will rapidly detect the nuclear material and provide radioactive-material information. Eventually, portable nuclide-analysis device can reduce measurement time and economic costs by providing a basis for rational decision making.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.515-519
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• 2022

In this paper, we propose the development of a high-sensitivity entry-level nuclide analysis module. The proposed measurement sensor module consists of an electronic driving circuit for nuclide analysis resolution, prototype production with nuclide analysis function, and GUI development applied to prototypes. The electronic part driving circuit for nuclide analysis resolution is divided into nuclide analysis resolution process by the electronic part driving circuit block diagram, MCU circuit design used for radiation measurement, and PC program design for Spectrum acquisition. Prototyping with nuclide analysis function is made by adding a 128×128 pixel OLED display, three buttons for operation, a Li-ion battery, and a USB-C type port for charging the battery. The GUI development department applied to the prototype develops the screen composition such as the current time, elapsed measurement time, total count, and nuclide Spectrum. To evaluate the performance of the proposed measurement sensor module, an expert witness test was conducted. As a result of the test, it was confirmed that the calculated result by applying the resolution formula to the Spectrum (FWHM@662keV) obtained using the Cs-137 standard source in the nuclide analysis device had a resolution of 17.77%. Therefore, it was confirmed that the nuclide analysis resolution method proposed in this paper produces improved performance while being cheaper than the existing commercial nuclide analysis module.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.84-93
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• 2023

The spent nuclear fuel is burned during the planned cycle in the plant and then generates elements such as actinide series, fission products, and plutonium with a long half-life. An 'interim storage' step is needed to manage the high radioactivity and heat emitted by nuclides until permanent-disposal. In the case of Korea, there is no space to dispose of high-level radioactive waste after use, so there is a need for a period of time using interim storage. Therefore, the intensity of neutrons and gamma-ray must be determined to ensure the integrity of spent nuclear fuel during interim storage. In particular, the most important thing in spent nuclear fuel is burnup evaluation, estimation of the source term of neutrons and gamma-ray is regarded as a reference measurement of the burnup evaluation. In this study, an analysis of spent nuclear fuel was conducted by setting up a virtual fuel burnup case based on CE16×16 fuel to check the total amount and spectrum of neutron, gamma radiation produced. The correlation between BU (burnup), IE (enrichment), and CT (cooling time) will be identified through spent nuclear fuel burnup calculation. In addition, the composition of nuclide inventory, actinide and fission products can be identified.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.155-157
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• 1962

A tiny dust found at the balcony of the Institute indicated about 8,0000 counts per minute by T.G.C.-2 Geiger-Muller tube (1.8mg/$cm^2$ window-thickness) at the distance of 2cm from the window. The main fission fragments, as identified by the present analysis, are 12.5day Ba-140 and 33.1 day Ce-141. The gamma energies were determined using $2"{\times}2"$ NaI(Tl) scintillation detector connected to RCL-256 channel pulse heigt analyzer. The beta energies were evaluated by Feather plot.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.154-159
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• 2018

Background: To prevent small leakage accidents, a real-time and direct detection system for small leaks with a detection limit below that of existing systems, e.g. $0.5gpm{\cdot}hr^{-1}$, is required. In this study, a small-size beta detector, which can be installed inside the reactor containment (CT) building and detect small leaks directly, was suggested and its feasibility was evaluated using MCNPX simulation. Materials and Methods: A target nuclide was selected through analysis of radiation from radionuclides in the reactor coolant system (RCS) and the spectrum was obtained via a silicon detector simulated in MCNPX. A window was designed to reduce the background signal caused by other nuclides. The sensitivity of the detector was also estimated, and its shielding designed for installation inside the reactor CT. Results and Discussion: The beta and gamma spectrum of the silicon detector showed a negligible gamma signal but it also contained an undesired peak at 0.22 MeV due to other nuclides, not the $^{16}N$ target nuclide. Window to remove the peak was derived as 0.4 mm for beryllium. The sensitivity of silicon beta detector with a beryllium window of 1.7 mm thickness was derived as $5.172{\times}10^{-6}{\mu}Ci{\cdot}cc^{-1}$. In addition, the specification of the shielding was evaluated through simulations, and the results showed that the integrity of the silicon detector can be maintained with lead shielding of 3 cm (<15 kg). This is a very small amount compared to the specifications of the lead shielding (600 kg) required for installation of $^{16}N$ gamma detector in inside reactor CT, it was determined that beta detector would have a distinct advantage in terms of miniaturization. Conclusion: The feasibility of the beta detector was evaluated for installation inside the reactor CT to detect small leaks below $0.5gpm{\cdot}hr^{-1}$. In future, the design will be optimized on specific data.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.5-10
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• 2011

Based on basic concept of detection limit, sample measurement time & background measurement time was considered, and MDA values according to background measurement time and sample measurement time in land samples(river soil, surface soil, drinking water, underground water, surface water, pine leaf, mugwort) analysis among environmental samples were compared. Seeing the water sample analysis result, it was shown that most of the samples were not detected, and most of the samples in land specimen analysis showed to be below the detection limit of "Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Announcement Je-2008-28-ho", but $^{137}Cs$ which is one of artificial radioactive nuclide was detected in some samples. It can be traced back to 1950s and 1960s when nuclear tests were carried out in atmosphere and catastrophic Chernobyl atomic power station accident that caused fallouts in the sky, and this is common level of detection that can be observed worldwide. Seeing the result that the $^{134}Cs$(which is a isotope of $^{137}Cs$, and it has relatively short half life) was not detected in all samples, it can be considered it doesn't affect to the operation of atomic power station.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.195-204
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• 2000

order to investigate physical characteristics and element concentrations of sediments, coastal bottom sediments were collected at 20 stations in the vicinity of Youngkwang Nuclear Power Plant. After air drying of samples in the laboratory. article size distribution was examined by Master sizer (X-350F), radio-activity by HPGe ${\gamma}$-spectrphotometer, and element concentrations by ICP-AES and AAS. According to particle size analysis , sediments are mainly composed of silt fraction weith 23% of sand, 65% of silt and 12% of clay on average. Most sediments are derived from muddy environment that silt dominates with the characteristics of 5.3${\varsigma}$ mean particle size, poorly sorted, very fine skewed and lepto-kurtic. Only two sediments are well sorted with sandy silt owing to wind, winnowing action, tide and current andits complex reactions. Element concentrations in the coastal bottom sediments are relatively high at finer sediment and show significant relationship with grain size. Index of geoaccumulation by heavy metals at every sampling station is classified as practically unpolluted. The radioactivities of the sediments were measured for 15 isotope elements, and 2 elements of K-40 and Cs-137 were detected in most sediments. The K-40 is the natural nuclide and the artificial nuclide of Cs-137 was thought to be derived from the fallout of past nuclear weapon test. The results of correlation coefficient between grain size and radioactivity shows that the activity of Cs-137 significantly increases in finer grain.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 2018

The measurement of gamma-ray spectrum of $^{nat}W(p,xn)$ reaction with natural tungsten were performed by using a high energy proton generated from a 100-MeV proton linear accelerator of the Korea Multi-purpose Accelerator Complex (KOMAC). Gamma rays generated by various nuclides generated through the nuclide were measured using a gamma-ray spectroscopy system composed of HPGe detector. A gamma-ray standard source was used for energy calibration and efficiency measurement of the detector. Analysis of the gamma rays observed in the measured spectra showed that the radionuclides produced were $^{167}Re$, $^{178}Re$, $^{179}Re$, $^{180}Re$, $^{181}Re$, $^{182}Re$, $^{184}Re$, $^{172}Ta$, $^{174}Ta$, $^{178}Ta$, $^{182}Ta$, $^{184}Ta$, $^{175}W$, $^{176}W$, $^{177}W$ and $^{179}W$. Nuclides were generated. The results of this study will be applied to nuclear fusion, astrophysics, and nuclear medicine applications in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.443-447
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• 2014

$^{134}Cs$ radioactive concentration among soil samples is difficult to classify due to the background impact on crust originated natural radioactive nuclide, and overlapping and interfering between peaks. The ways to identify true peaks in gamma-ray spectroscopy are as follows to reduce statistical fluctuation by smoothing based on the fact that the shapes of peak are mostly Gaussian, to inspect the levels of width and height of peaks, to add functions on low-energy trailing phenomena, or 4) to check the peaks after modifying Gaussian function itself. Therefore, it is considered that information and knowledge for spectrum analysis are necessary.