• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.123-131
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• 2018

This study compared PENELOPE with measured values from low energy peak to high energy peak to reduce peak to compton ratio and continuum background spectrum using $^{60}Co$, $^{137}Cs$ and mixed volume source. In addition, the change in backscattering and compton edge efficiency was compared with that of PENELOPE through changes in the vicinity of low energy. The results from the mixed volume source are applied to the soil samples to determine how much the minimum detection limits of the soil samples are reduced in the suppression and unsuppressed mode. The compton suppression of the low energy region of $^{60}CO$ (1,173 keV) was considerable, and the Compton edge RF for the $^{137}Cs$ (661 keV) peak was 2.8. In particular, the $^{60}Co$ source emits coincidence gamma rays of 1,173.2 keV and 1,332.5 keV, so compton inhibition was reduced by approximately 21%. RF of compton edges of 1,173 keV and 1,332 keV emitted from a $^{60}Co$ source was 3.2 and 3.4, and the peak to compton edge ratio was improved to 8: 1. And Compared with Penelope, the uncertainty was well within 2%. In compton unsuppressed mode, MDA values of 661 keV, 1,173 keV and 1,332 keV were 0.535, 0.173 and 0.136 Bq/kg, respectively, but decreased in compton suppressed mode to 0.121, 0.00826 and 0.00728 Bq/kg. Thus, Compton suppressed could reduce the background radioactivity and the radioactivity contained in the detector itself.

• 대한방사선방어학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.240-241
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• 2011

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.592-597
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• 2017

Three plastic scintillators of 4.5 cm diameter and 2.5-cm length were fabricated for comparison with commercial plastic scintillators using polymerization of the styrene monomer 2.5-diphenyloxazole (PPO) and 1,4-bis benzene (POPOP). Their maximum emission wavelengths were determined at 426.06 nm, 426.06 nm, and 425.00 nm with a standard error of 0.2% using a Varian spectrophotometer (Agilent, Santa Clara, CA, USA). Compton edge spectra were measured using three gamma ray sources [i.e., cesium 137 ($^{137}Cs$), sodium 22 ($^{22}Na$), and cobalt 60 ($^{60}Co$)]. Energy was calibrated by analyzing the Compton edge spectra. The fabricated scintillators possessed more than 99.7% energy linearity. Light output was comparable to that of the BC-408 scintillator (Saint-Gobain, Paris, France). The fabricated scintillators showed a light output of approximately 59-64% of that of the BC-408 scintillator.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3833-3840
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• 2022

A method for calibrating the energy scale and detection efficiency of stilbene scintillators is presented herein. This method can be used to quantitatively analyze the Compton continuum of gamma-ray spectra obtained using such scintillators. First, channel-energy calibration was conducted by fitting a semi-empirical equation for the Compton continuum to the acquired energy spectrum and a new method to evaluate the intrinsic detection efficiency, called intrinsic Compton efficiency, of stilbene scintillators was proposed. The validity of this method was verified by changing experimental conditions such as the number of sources being measured simultaneously and the detector-source distance. According to the energy calibration, the standard error for the estimated Compton edge position was ±1.56 keV. The comparison of the intrinsic Compton efficiencies calculated from the single- and two-source spectra showed that the mean absolute difference and the mean absolute percentage difference are 0.031 %p and 0.557%, respectively, demonstrating reasonable accuracy of this method. The feasibility of the method was confirmed for an energy range of 0.5-1.5 MeV, showing that stilbene scintillators can be used to quantitatively analyze gamma rays in mixed-radiation fields.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.285-296
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• 1996

The energy spectra in the air and water of several ${\gamma}-ray$ sources such as Cr-51, Cs-137, Mn-54, Zn-65 have been investigated using the NaI(T1) scintillation detector. General response functions, which can curve fit the measured spectra, have been constructed. We have found that the constructed response functions can successfully represent the measured spectra in the water as well as in the air, It is possible, by comparing the relevant parameters of the response functions, to quantitatively characterize the changing features of the measured spectra as obtained with varying the water depth. Of the response function parameters, those which affect the shape of the full-energy Peak have most notably changed. Besides, those parameters which affect the shapes of the flat continuum, the Compton continuum and edge have also shown slight changes with varying the water depth.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.16-24
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• 2012

In the present study, a gamma-ray detector and associated signal processing circuit was developed for a side-absorber of a dual-mode Compton camera. The gamma-ray detector was made by optically coupling a CsI(Tl) scintillation crystal to a silicon photodiode. The developed signal processing circuit consists of two parts, i.e., the slow part for energy measurement and the fast part for timing measurement. In the fast part, there are three components: (1) fast shaper, (2) leading-edge discriminator, and (3) TTL-to-NIM logic converter. AC coupling configuration between the detector and front-end electronics (FEE) was used. Because the noise properties of FEE can significantly affect the overall performance of the detection system, some design criteria were presented. The performance of the developed system was evaluated in terms of energy and timing resolutions. The evaluated energy resolution was 12.0% and 15.6% FWHM for 662 and 511 keV peaks, respectively. The evaluated timing resolution was 59.0 ns. In the conclusion, the methods to improve the performance were discussed because the developed gamma-ray detection system showed the performance that could be applicable but not satisfactory in Compton camera application.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.157-165
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• 2017

In this paper, we calculate the light photons collection efficiency of large-volume plastic scintillation detector mainly used for radiation portal monitor (RPM). A Monte Carlo light photon transport code, DETECT2000, were used to quantitatively evaluate light collection efficiency of plastic scintillation detector. DETECT2000 calculated the placement of light collection efficiency based on the energy spectrum. We calculated the light collection efficiency relative to the position of the energy spectrum that proportional to the placement of the source. The $850{\times}285{\times}65mm^3$ size of polyvinyl toluene (PVT) scintillator was used for measurements. Through DETECT2000 simulation, the light collection efficiency of $5{\times}5$ arrays were calculated and verification was performed by comparing with experimentally measured. And then, the corrected MCNP simulation by applying the light collection efficiency in $21{\times}13$ arrays was compared and analyzed. Comparing the Monte Carlo simulation with measured results, it shows an average difference of 10.1% in $5{\times}5$ arrays. Particularly, about twice of the difference was found in the edge of first column, which coupled with PMT. In whole $5{\times}5$ array, the overall ratio was the same except for the first column. And then comparing the energy spectra of the $21{\times}13$ array with and without the light collection efficiency, it shows a difference of 6.69% in Compton edge area. The DETECT2000 based light collection efficiency simulation showed well agreement with the point source experiment. And comparing with measured energy spectra, we could compare the differences according to whether or not the light collection efficiency was applied. As a results, it is possible to increase the accuracy and reliability of Monte Carlo simulation results by pre-calculating the light collection efficiency according to the PVT geometry by using the DETECT2000.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4684-4692
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• 2022

Radionuclide identification is an important part of the nuclear material identification system. The development of artificial intelligence and machine learning has made nuclide identification rapid and automatic. However, many methods directly use existing deep learning models to analyze the gamma-ray spectrum, which lacks interpretability for researchers. This study proposes an explainable radionuclide identification algorithm based on the convolutional neural network and class activation mapping. This method shows the area of interest of the neural network on the gamma-ray spectrum by generating a class activation map. We analyzed the class activation map of the gamma-ray spectrum of different types, different gross counts, and different signal-to-noise ratios. The results show that the convolutional neural network attempted to learn the relationship between the input gamma-ray spectrum and the nuclide type, and could identify the nuclide based on the photoelectric peak and Compton edge. Furthermore, the results explain why the neural network could identify gamma-ray spectra with low counts and low signal-to-noise ratios. Thus, the findings improve researchers' confidence in the ability of neural networks to identify nuclides and promote the application of artificial intelligence methods in the field of nuclide identification.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.450-454
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• 2021

Currently, gamma nuclide analysis is mainly used using inorganic scintillators or semiconductor detectors. These detectors have high resolution but there are less economical, limited in size, and low process ability than plastic scintillators. Therefore, quantum dot-based plastic scintillator was developed using the advantages of the quantum dot nanomaterial and the conventional plastic scintillator. In this study, efficient plastic scintillator was fabricated by adding CdS/ZnS based on the most widely used Cd-based nanomaterial in a polystyrene matrix. In addition, the performance of the commercial plastic scintillator was compared and it was analyzed through radiological measurement experiments. The detection efficiency of fabricated plastic scintillator was higher than commercial plastic scintillator, EJ-200. It is believed that this fabricated plastic scintillator can be used as a radioactivity analyzer in the medical and nuclear facility fields.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.117-129
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• 2020

Background: Radiation portal monitors (RPMs) involving plastic scintillators installed at the border inspection sites can detect illicit trafficking of radioactive sources in cargo containers within seconds. However, RPMs may generate false alarms because of the naturally occurring radioactive materials. To manage these false alarms, we previously suggested an energy-weighted algorithm that emphasizes the Compton-edge area as an outstanding peak. This study intends to evaluate the identification of radioactive sources using an improved energy-weighted algorithm. Materials and Methods: The algorithm was modified by increasing the energy weighting factor, and different peak combinations of the energy-weighted spectra were tested for source identification. A commercialized RPM system was used to measure the energy-weighted spectra. The RPM comprised two large plastic scintillators with dimensions of 174 × 29 × 7 ㎤ facing each other at a distance of 4.6 m. In addition, the in-house-fabricated signal processing boards were connected to collect the signal converted into a spectrum. Further, the spectra from eight radioactive sources, including special nuclear materials (SNMs), which were set in motion using a linear motion system (LMS) and a cargo truck, were estimated to identify the source identification rate. Results and Discussion: Each energy-weighted spectrum exhibited a specific peak location, although high statistical fluctuation errors could be observed in the spectrum with the increasing source speed. In particular, ¹³⁷Cs and ⁶⁰Co in motion were identified completely (100%) at speeds of 5 and 10 km/hr. Further, SNMs, which trigger the RPM alarm, were identified approximately 80% of the time at both the aforementioned speeds. Conclusion: Using the modified energy-weighted algorithm, several characteristics of the energy weighted spectra could be observed when the used sources were in motion and when the geometric efficiency was low. In particular, the discrimination between ⁶⁰Co and ⁴⁰K, which triggers false alarms at the primary inspection sites, can be improved using the proposed algorithm.