• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 2003

The \gamma-ray spectrometer of the PGAA (Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis) facility constructed at HANARO of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute was upgraded to the multi-mode spectrometer including the single mode, the Compton suppression mode and the pair mode. The performance of the spectrometer was tested and summarized. The background count rate and the uncertainty of the detection efficiency were reduced greatly in comparison with those before the new installation.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.162-166
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• 2008

We are developing a sensitive gamma ray spectrometer based on superconducting transition edge sensors. The detector consists of a small piece of high purity Sn as an absorber and a Ti/Au bilayer as a temperature sensor. It is designed to measure the thermal signal caused by absorption of gamma rays. The mechanical support and the thermal contact between the absorber and the thermometer were made with Stycast epoxy. The bilayer was formed by e-beam evaporation and patterned by wet etching on top of a $SiN_X$ membrane. A sharp superconducting transition of the film was measured near 100 mK. When the film was biased to the edge of the transition, signals were observed due to single photon absorption emitted from an $^{241}Am$ source. The measured spectrum showed several characteristic peaks of the source including 59.5 keV gamma line. The full with at half maximum was about 900 eV for the 59.5 keV gamma line. The background was low enough to resolve low energy lines. Considerations to improve the energy resolution of the gamma ray spectrometer are also discussed.

• 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.1 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 1969

Determinations of the isotopic contents of U$^{235}$ and U$^{238}$ in ten uranium samples containing 0.72-89.70 at % U$^{235}$ were carried out in two ways utilizing high resolution Ge (Li) gamma-ray spectrometer. One method is based upon the fact that the intensity of 185.5 kev gamma-ray vary linearly with U$^{235}$ content for a given geometry. Another method applied for the direct determination of the U$^{235}$ / U$^{238}$ isotopic ratios is the precision gamma-ray spectrometric analysis of reactor irradiated uranium samples after allowing a fixed cooling time for one hour. The results obtained by both methods well agree with the values calculated from the isotopic contents of highly enriched original uranium samples measured by mass spectrometer. The precision obtained was well below 5% for most of the isotopic ratios investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.376.1-376
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• 2002

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.45-49
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• 2007

keV-neutron capture gamma-ray spectrum of $^{197}Au$(natural gold) sample have been measured in neutron energy range from 10 to 90 keV using the 3-MV pelletron accelerator of the Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Pulsed keV neutrons were produced from the $^7Li(p,n)^7Be$ reaction by bombarding on the $^7Li$ target with the 1.5-ns bunched proton beam. The incident neutron spectrum on the Au sample was measured by a $^6Li$-glass scintillation detector and TOF method. Capture gamma-rays from Au sample were measured by anti-Compton NaI(TI) spectrometer. Five average neutron energy regions were selected to obtain the neutron capture spectrum. Several gamma-ray peaks in the spectrum were found in the present experiment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.31-34
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• 2008

The neutron capture spectrum for the light nuclide was very useful to study the nuclear structure. In the present study, the capture gamma-ray from the 27-keV resonance of $^{19}F(n,g)^{20}F$ reaction were measured with an anti-Compton NaI(Tl) spectrometer and the 3-MV Pelletron accelerator of the Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors at the Tokyo institute of technology. A neutron Time-of-Flight method was adopted with a 1.5 ns pulsed neutron source by the $^7Li(p,n)^7Be$ reaction. In the present experiment, a Teflon(($CF_2$)n) sample was used The sample was disk with a diameter of 90mm. The thickness of sample was determined so that reasonable counting rates could be obtained and the correction was not so large for the self-shielding and multiple scattering of neutrons in the sample, and was 5mm. The primary gamma-ray transitions were compared with previous measurement of Kenny.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.318.1-318
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• 2001

• 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.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2001

In order to shield the neutrons affecting the background of Low Level Gamma Ray Spectrometer, a neutron shielder was designed. The method used in this study for neutron shielding was the deceleration of fast neutrons by high density polyethylene(HDPE) and the absorption of those slowing-down neutrons by $B_4C$. The calculation results of neutron Interaction in HDPE using Monte Carlo simulation code MCNP4B showed that the thermal-neutron flux was maximum at 10 cm thickness of HDPE. The results also showed that 95% of the thermal neutrons were absorbed by 2 mm thickness of $B_4C$ absorber Consisted of 30 w% $B_4C$ and 70 w% polymer. The results of the Monte Carlo calculation were in good agreement with the experimental value obtained by a neutron shielding apparatus designed for this purpose.