• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.12-24
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• 2003

For the design and set-up of neutron induced prompt ${\gamma}$-ray spectroscopy system using $^{252}Cf$ neutron source, the effects of shielding and moderator materials have been examined. The $^{252}Cf$ source being used for TLD badge calibration in Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute was utilized for this preliminary experiment. The ${\gamma}$-ray background and prompt ${\gamma}$-ray spectrum of the sample containing Cl were measured using HPGe (GMX 60% relative efficiency) located at the inside of the system connected to notebook PC at the outside of the system (about 20 meter distance). The background activities of neutron and ${\gamma}$-rays were measured with neutron survey meter as well as ${\gamma}$-ray survey meters, respectively and the system was designed to minimize the activities. Prompt ${\gamma}$-ray spectrum was measured using ${\gamma}$-${\gamma}$ coincident system for reduce the background and the continuum spectrum. The optimum system was designed and set up using the experimental data obtained.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.989-995
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• 2018

Argonne National Laboratory of the United States and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) of Ukraine have cooperated on the development, design, and construction of a neutron source facility. The facility was constructed at Kharkov, Ukraine, and its commissioning process is underway. The facility will be used for researches, producing medical isotopes, and training young nuclear specialists. The neutron source facility is designed with a provision to include a cryogenically cooled moderator system-a cold neutron source (CNS). This CNS provides low-energy neutrons, which will be used in the scattering experiment and material structures analysis. Cold neutron guides, coated with reflective material for the low-energy neutrons, will be used to transport the cold neutrons to the experimental site. The cold neutron guides would keep the cold neutrons within certain energy and angular space concentrated inside, while most of the gamma rays and high-energy neutrons are not affected by the cold neutron guides. For the KIPT design, the cold neutron guides need to extend several meters outside the main shield of the facility, and curved guides will also be used to remove the gamma and high-energy neutron. The neutron guides should be installed inside a shield structure to ensure an acceptable biological dose in the facility hall. Heavy concrete is the selected shielding material because of its acceptable performance and cost. Shield design analysis was carried out for the CNS guide hall. MCNPX was used as the major computation tool for the design analysis, with neutron and gamma dose calculated separately. Weight windows variance reduction technique was also used in the shield design. The goal of the shield design is to keep the total radiation dose below the $5.0{\mu}Sv/hr$ guideline outside the shield boundary. After a series of iterative MCNPX calculations, the shield configuration and parameters of CNS guide hall were determined and presented in this article.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.87 no.5
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• pp.499-516
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• 2023

To defend against harmful gamma radiation, new types of materials for use in the construction of heavyweight concrete (HWC) are still needed to be developed. This research introduces new materials to be employed as a partial replacement for fine aggregate (FA) to manufacture high-performance heavyweight concrete (HPHWC). These materials include hematite, black sand, ilmenite, and magnetite, with substitution ratios of 50% and 100% of FA. In this research, the hardening and fresh characteristics of HPHWC were obtained. Concrete samples' Gamma-ray linear attenuation coefficient was evaluated utilizing a gamma source of Co-60 through the thicknesses of 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, and 15 cm. High temperatures were studied for HPHWC samples, which were exposed to up to 700℃ for two hours. Energy-dispersive x-rays and a scanning electron microscope carried out microstructure analyses. Magnetite as an FA attained the lowest compressive strength of 87.1 MPa, but the best radiation protection characteristics and the highest density of 3100 kg/m³ were achieved. After 28 days, the attenuation efficiency of concrete mixtures was increased by 6.5% when fine sand was replaced with black sand at a ratio of 50%. HPHWC, which contains hematite, black sand, ilmenite, and magnetite, is designed to reduce environmental and health dangers and be used in medicinal, military, and civil applications.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 2017

Considering that the X-ray apron used in the department of radiology is also used in the department of nuclear medicine, the study aimed to analyze the shielding rate of the apron according to types of radioisotopes, thus ${\gamma}$ ray energy, to investigate the protective effects. The radioisotopes used in the experiment were the top 5 nuclides in usage statistics $^{99m}Tc$, $^{18}F$, $^{131}I$, $^{123}I$, and $^{201}Tl$, and the aprons were lead equivalent 0.35 mmPb aprons currently under use in the department of nuclear medicine. As a result of experiments, average shielding rates of aprons were $^{99m}Tc$ 31.59%, $^{201}Tl$ 68.42%, and $^{123}I$ 76.63%. When using an apron, the shielding rate of $^{131}I$ actually resulted in average dose rate increase of 33.72%, and $^{18}F$ showed an average shielding rate of -0.315%, showing there was almost no shielding effect. As a result, the radioisotopes with higher shielding rate of apron was in the descending order of $^{123}I$, $^{201}Tl$, $^{99m}Tc$, $^{18}F$, $^{131}I$. Currently, aprons used in the nuclear medicine laboratory are general X-ray aprons, and it is thought that it is not appropriate for nuclear medicine environment that utilizes ${\gamma}$ rays. Therefore, development of nuclear medicine exclusive aprons suitable for the characteristics of radioisotopes is required in consideration of effective radiation protection and work efficiency of radiation workers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.1154-1159
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• 2018

Precise prediction of the radiation interaction position in scintillators plays an important role in medical and industrial imaging systems. In this research, the incident position of the gamma rays was predicted precisely in a plastic rod scintillator by using attenuation technique and multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network, for the first time. Also, this procedure was performed using nonlinear regression (NLR) method. The experimental setup is comprised of a plastic rod scintillator (BC400) coupled with two PMTs at two sides, a $^{60}Co$ gamma source and two counters that record count rates. Using two proposed techniques (ANN and NLR), the radiation interaction position was predicted in a plastic rod scintillator with a mean relative error percentage less than 4.6% and 14.6%, respectively. The mean absolute error was measured less than 2.5 and 5.5. The correlation coefficient was calculated 0.998 and 0.984, respectively. Also, the ANN technique was confirmed by leave-one-out (LOO) method with 1% error. These results presented the superiority of the ANN method in comparison with NLR and the other methods. The technique and set up used are simpler and faster than other the previous position sensitive detectors. Thus, the time, cost and shielding and electronics requirements are minimized and optimized.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.65-75
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• 1971

The gamma-ray shielding effects of magnetite concretes have been measured using a broad beam Co-60 gamma-ray source. Mathematical formulae for a trans-mission ratio-to-shield thickness relation were derived from the attenuation curve obtained experimentally and are I (x) = I (ο) exp(-$\mu$X) exp(1.03$\times$10$^{-1}$ X-3.38$\times$10$^{-3}$ X$^2$＋5.29$\times$10$^{-5}$ X$^3$) when X< 20 cm, I (x) =I (ο) exp(-$\mu$X) exp(4.66$\times$10$^{-2}$ X＋2.12$\times$10$^{-1}$ ) when X＞20 cm. Here I (x) is radiation intensity after passing through a thickness X of absorber, I(o) is the initial radiation intensity, $\mu$ is the linear attenuation coefficient of magnetite concrete and is given by (0.0532$\rho$＋ 0.0083)$^{4)}$ $cm^{-1}$ / in accordance with an earlier study, and X is the thickness of absorber. In addition, a model shield which is a rectangular magnetite concrete box with walls of 8cm thickness walls and internal demensions of 40$\times$40$\times$40 cm was constructed and its shielding effect has been measured. The emergent radiation flux appears to be greater with this configuration than with a slab shield of equal thickness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1563-1570
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• 2017

In order to perform dry interim storage and transportation of the spent-fuel assemblies of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, dual-purpose casks can be utilized. The effectiveness of different neutron-shield materials for the dual-purpose cask was analyzed through a set of calculations carried out using the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code. The dose rate for the dual-purpose cask utilizing the recently developed materials of $epoxy/clay/B_4C$ and $epoxy/clay/B_4C/carbon$ fiber was less than the allowable radiation level of 2 mSv/h at any point and 0.1 mSv/h at 2 m from the external surface of the cask. By utilization of $epoxy/clay/B_4C$ instead of an ethylene glycol/water mixture, the dose rates on the side surface of the cask due to neutron sources and consequent secondary gamma rays will be reduced by 17.5% and 10%, respectively. The overall dose rate in this case will be reduced by 11%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1587-1592
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• 2023

Time-encoded imagers (TEI) are important class of instruments to search for potential radioactive sources to prevent illicit transportation and trafficking of nuclear materials and other radioactive sources. The energy of the radiation cannot be known in advance due to the type and shielding of source is unknown in practice. However, the response function of the time-encoded imagers is related to the energy of neutrons or gamma-rays. An improved image reconstruction method based on MLEM was proposed to correct for the energy induced response difference. In this method, the count vector versus time was first smoothed. Then, the preset response function was adaptively corrected according to the measured counts. Finally, the smoothed count vector and corrected response were used in MLEM to reconstruct the source distribution. A one-dimensional dual-particle time-encode imager was developed and used to verify the improved method through imaging an Am-Be neutron source. The improvement of this method was demonstrated by the image reconstruction results. For gamma-ray and neutron images, the angular resolution improved by 17.2% and 7.0%; the contrast-to-noise ratio improved by 58.7% and 14.9%; the signal-to-noise ratio improved by 36.3% and 11.7%, respectively.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.449-454
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• 1993

The skin sparing effect associated with high energy x-ray or gamma ray beams may be reduce or lost under certain conditions of treatment. Current trends in using large fields. Shield carrying trays, compensating filters, and isocentric methods of treatment have posed problems of increased skin dose which sometimes become a limiting factor in giving adquate tumor doses. We used the shallow ion chamber to measure the phantom surface dose and the physical treatment variables for Co-60 gamma ray, 4MV and 10 MV x-ray beam. The dependence of percent surface dose on field sizes, atomic number of the shielding tray materials and its distance from the surface for 4, 10MV x-rays and Co-60 gamma ray is qualitatively similar. The use of 2 mm thick tin filter is recommended for situations where a low atomic number tray is introduced into the beam at distances less than 15 cm from the surface and with the large field sized for 4 MV x-ray beam. In case of Co-60 gamma ray, the lead glass tray is suitable for enhancement of skin sparing. Also, the filter distance should be as large as possible to achieve substantial skin sparing.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.523-529
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• 2022

Gamma spectroscopy analysis is widely used for radioactivity analysis, and various factors are required for radioactivity calculations. Among the factors, K3 for each sample significantly influences the results. The previous methods of correcting the self-absorption effect include a computational simulation method and a method that requires making a CRM(certified reference material) identical to the sample medium. However, the above methods have limitations when used in small institutions because they require specialized program utilization skills or high manufacturing costs and large facilities. The aim of this study is to develop a method that can be easily and rapidly applied to radioactivity analysis. After filling the beaker with water, we placed the radiation source in a uniform position and used the measured value as the benchmark. Next, a correction factor was derived based on the difference in the radiation source count of the benchmark and the identically measured sample. For the radiation source, Eu-152, which emits a broad range of energy within the measurement range of gamma rays, and Cs-134 and Cs-137, which are indicator nuclides in environmental radiation analysis, were used. The sample was selected within the density range of 0.26-2.11 g/cm³, and the correction factor was derived by calculating the count difference of each sample compared to the reference value of water. This study presents a faster and more convenient method than the existing research methods for determining the self-absorption effect correction, which has become increasingly necessary.