• 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.

• 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 Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.91-97
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• 2017

Background: A gamma energy identifying algorithm using spectral decomposition combined with smoothing method was suggested to confirm the existence of the artificial radio isotopes. The algorithm is composed by original pattern recognition method and smoothing method to enhance the performance to identify gamma energy of radiation sensors that have low energy resolution. Materials and Methods: The gamma energy identifying algorithm for the compact radiation sensor is a three-step of refinement process. Firstly, the magnitude set is calculated by the original spectral decomposition. Secondly, the magnitude of modeling error in the magnitude set is reduced by the smoothing method. Thirdly, the expected gamma energy is finally decided based on the enhanced magnitude set as a result of the spectral decomposition with the smoothing method. The algorithm was optimized for the designed radiation sensor composed of a CsI (Tl) scintillator and a silicon pin diode. Results and Discussion: The two performance parameters used to estimate the algorithm are the accuracy of expected gamma energy and the number of repeated calculations. The original gamma energy was accurately identified with the single energy of gamma radiation by adapting this modeling error reduction method. Also the average error decreased by half with the multi energies of gamma radiation in comparison to the original spectral decomposition. In addition, the number of repeated calculations also decreased by half even in low fluence conditions under $10^4$ ($/0.09cm^2$ of the scintillator surface). Conclusion: Through the development of this algorithm, we have confirmed the possibility of developing a product that can identify artificial radionuclides nearby using inexpensive radiation sensors that are easy to use by the public. Therefore, it can contribute to reduce the anxiety of the public exposure by determining the presence of artificial radionuclides in the vicinity.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.158-165
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• 2017

Background: Nuclear facilities in South Korea have generally adopted pressurized ion chambers to measure ambient gamma ray exposure rates for monitoring the impact of radiation on the surrounding environment. The rates assessed with pressurized ion chambers do not distinguish between natural and man-made radiation, so a further step is needed to identify the cause of abnormal variation. In contrast, using NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors to detect gamma energy rates can allow an immediate assessment of the cause of variation through an analysis of the energy spectra. Against this backdrop, this study was conducted to propose a more effective way to monitor ambient gamma exposure rates. Materials and Methods: The following methods were used to analyze gamma energy spectra measured from January to November 2016 with NaI detectors installed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) dormitory and Hanbat University. 1) Correlations of the variation of rates measured at the two locations were determined. 2) The dates, intervals, duration, and weather conditions were identified when rates increased by $5nSv{\cdot}h^{-1}$ or more. 3) Differences in the NaI spectra on normal days and days where rates spiked by $5nSv{\cdot}h^{-1}$ or more were studied. 4) An algorithm was derived for automatically calculating the net variation of the rates. Results and Discussion: The rates measured at KAERI and Hanbat University, located 12 kilometers apart, did not show a strong correlation (coefficient of determination = 0.577). Time gaps between spikes in the rates and rainfall were factors that affected the correlation. The weather conditions on days where rates went up by $5nSv{\cdot}h^{-1}$ or more featured rainfall, snowfall, or overcast, as well as an increase in peaks of the gamma rays emitted from the radon decay products of $^{214}Pb$ and $^{214}Bi$ in the spectrum. This study assumed that $^{214}Pb$ and $^{214}Bi$ exist at a radioactive equilibrium, since both have relatively short half-lives of under 30 minutes. Provided that this assumption is true and that the gamma peaks of the 352 keV and 1,764 keV gamma rays emitted from the radionuclides have proportional count rates, no man-made radiation should be present between the two energy levels. This study proved that this assumption was true by demonstrating a linear correlation between the count rates of these two gamma peaks. In conclusion, if the count rates of these two peaks detected in the gamma energy spectrum at a certain time maintain the ratio measured at a normal time, such variation can be confirmed to be caused by natural radiation. Conclusion: This study confirmed that both $^{214}Pb$ and $^{214}Bi$ have relatively short half-lives of under 30 minutes, thereby existing in a radioactive equilibrium in the atmosphere. If the gamma peaks of the 352 keV and 1,764 keV gamma rays emitted from these radionuclides have proportional count rates, no man-made radiation should exist between the two energy levels.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.55-59
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• 2015

Research about the proton nuclear reaction is actively achieving on the proton therapy including material development of fusion reactor. The proton induced gamma ray energy(2754, 1386 keV) spectrum of 27Al(p,3p+n)24Na reaction was measured with 100 MeV high energy proton beam. The proton beam in the experiment was derived from 100 MeV proton linear accelerator in the KOMAC. We measured the gamma ray intensity ratio of the decay level from the energy spectrum. The previous results have been compared with the current result. Strength of measured gamma rays will provide very important information though decide high energy gamma radiation detection efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.849-856
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• 2020

In the gamma-ray energy spectrum study, nuclide analysis through energy analysis is very important. High-purity Ge detectors, which are commonly used for gamma-ray energy measurements, are commonly used because of their high energy resolution and relatively high detection efficiency. However, in order to maintain a high energy resolution, the semiconductor detector has a problem in that it is difficult to maintain the original performance if the noise generated from the surrounding environment is not effectively blocked, and the effect of the expensive device is not achieved. Therefore, in this study, ground loop isolator (NEXT-001HDGL) was used to remove the electrical noise generated from the detector. In order to test the effect of improving energy resolution, HPGe detection device newly installed in the proton accelerator KOMAC was used. In the case of gamma-ray energy 2614 keV, the energy resolution was improved from (0.16 ± 0.02) % to (0.11 ± 0.01) %, and in the case of gamma-ray energy 662 keV of 137Cs isotope, the energy resolution was improved from (0.72 ± 0.07) % to (0.27 ± 0.03) %. This result is considered to be very useful for the gamma ray spectrum study using the HPGe detection equipment of KOMAC(Korea Multi-Purpose Accelerator Complex).

• 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.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.170-175
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• 2009

For the emergency radiation monitoring using gamma spectrometry, we should sufficiently survey the background spectra as environmental samples with systematic nuclide identification method. In this study, we obtained the gamma ray energy spectrum using a HPGe gamma spectrometry system from an air sample. And we identified nuclide of the gamma ray energy peaks in the spectrum using two methods -1) Half life calculation and 2) survey for cascade coincidence summing peaks using nuclear data. As the results, we produced the nuclide identification results for the air sample.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2003

The mutational spectra in the manganese (II) peroxidase gene (mnp) of the Pleurotus ostreatus mutants induced by gamma radiation (Co$\^$60/) give evidence to prove the effect of gamma radiation on the gene. mnp of each mutant was cloned, sequenced and analyzed. Among the 1941 base pairs of the sequenced region of the mnP genes of 4 mutants (PO-5,-6,-15 and -16), nine mutational hotspots on which the same base was mutated simultaneously were found, additionally 6 mutations were also found at different positions in the mnp gene. These mutation-spectra were predominantly A:T\longrightarrowG:C transitions (50.1%). By the analysis of putative amino acid sequences, PO-5 and PO-16 mutants have 3 and 1 mutated residues, respectively. Since the mutational spectra reported herein are specific to the mnp gene, we propose that the mutational hotspots for the gamma radiation could be in the gene(5) within cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05b
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• pp.464-469
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• 1998

A coincidence gamma-ray spectroscopy method was applied to reduce the background radioactivity for measuring the activity of radioisotopes in a sample in the presence of environmental natural radioactivity. A HPGe detector was used for the coincident spectrum as a main detector and a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector for gating purposes as an associated detector. For coincidence spectroscopy the whole energy spectrum of associated detector was used instead of gate signals. The coincident events obtained from the gating spectrum was evaluated by a coincidence computer program in this study instead of timing circuit. In this work, the background of detection environment was reduced to factor 100 and peaks to be determined was reduced to factor 30 using the coincidence gamma-ray spectroscopy.