• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.1426-1432
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• 2018

This paper presents a neutron detector configuration using EJ-301 scintillation liquid, a R9420 photo-multiplier and a homemade preamplifier. The detector qualities which include the energy linearity, efficiency response and neutron/gamma discrimination are guaranteed for neutron detection in the energy range from 0 to 3000 keVee. Regarding the neutron/gamma discrimination capability, four pulse shape discrimination (PSD) methods which are the threshold crossing time (TCT), pulse gradient analysis (PGA), charge comparison (CC) and correlation pattern recognition (CPR), were evaluated and discussed; among of these, the CPR method provides the best neutron/gamma discrimination.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.360-365
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• 2020

A technique for the reduction of pulse pile-up effect in digital pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) of neutrons and gamma-rays with organic scintillation detectors is presented. The technique is based on an electronic reduction of the effective decay-time constant of scintillation pulses while retaining the PSD information of the pulses. The experimental results obtained with a NE213 liquid scintillation detector in a mixed radiation field of neutrons and gamma-rays are presented, demonstrating a figure of merit (FOM) of 1.20 ± 0.05 with an energy threshold of 350 keVee (electron equivalent energy) when the effective length of the pulses is reduced to 50 ns.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1677-1686
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• 2023

As the demand for the detection of special nuclear materials (SNMs) increases, the use of imaging instruments that can sensitively image both gamma-ray and neutron signatures has become necessary. This study compared the pulse shape discrimination (PSD) performance of gamma/neutron events when employing either a pixelated stilbene or a plastic (EJ-276) scintillator array coupled to a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array in a dual-particle imager. The stilbene array allowed a lower energy threshold above which neutron and gamma-ray events can be clearly distinguished. A greater number of events can, therefore, be used when forming both gamma-ray and neutron images, which shortens the time required to acquire the images by nearly seven times.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.3784-3789
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• 2021

We report a simple technique for direct neutron spectroscopy using pure LaCl₃ crystals. Pure LaCl₃ crystals exhibit considerably better pulse shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities with relatively good energy resolution as compared with Ce-doped LaCl₃ crystals. Single crystals of pure and Ce-doped LaCl₃ were grown using an inhouse-developed Bridgman furnace. PSD capabilities of these crystals were investigated using ²⁴¹Am and ¹³⁷Cs sources. Fast neutron detection was tested using a²⁵²Cf source and three separate bands corresponding to electron, proton, and alpha were observed. The proton band induced by the ³⁵Cl(n,p)³⁵S reaction can be used for direct neutron spectroscopy because proton energy is proportional to incident neutron energy. Owing to good scintillation performance and excellent PSD capabilities, pure LaCl₃ is a promising candidate for space detectors and other applications that necessitate gamma/fast neutron discrimination capability.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1403-1409
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to develop the systematic process on the discrimination of Sasang constitution with the pulse diagnosis apparatus. The pulse waves were acquired at the right and the left Guan point with 1420 people who were apparently healthy. In order to minimize the effect of aging on the shape of pulse wave, the age groups of 30s, 40s, and 50s were used. Taeum group was the best to classify, Soyang group was the worst. With the same group size, the sensitivity of Soyang group was increased. Input variables were selected with the consideration of the floating-sink ratio, tests of equality of group means, multiple comparison, multicollinearity, and structure matrix. To increase the sensitivity of Soyang, the variables which could tell the difference between Soyang and Soeum were selected.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.53-63
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• 2019

Background: As neutron fields are always accompanied by gamma rays, it is essential to distinguish neutrons from gamma rays in the detection of neutrons. Neutrons and gamma rays can be separated by pulse shape discrimination (PSD) methods. Recently, we performed characterization of a stilbene scintillator detector and an EJ-301 liquid scintillator detector with a high-speed digitizer DT5730 and investigated optimized PSD variables for both detectors. This study is for providing a basis for developing fast neutron/gamma-ray dual-particle imager. Materials and Methods: We conducted PSD experiments using stilbene scintillator and EJ-301 liquid scintillator and evaluated neutron and gamma ray discriminability of each PSD method with a $^{137}Cs$ gamma source and a $^{252}Cf$ neutron source. We implemented digital signal processing techniques to apply two PSD methods - the charge comparison (CC) method and the constant time discrimination (CTD) method - to distinguish neutrons from gamma rays. We tried to find optimized PSD variables giving the best discriminability in a given experimental condition. Results and Discussion: For the stilbene scintillator detector, the charge comparison method and the constant time discrimination method both delivered the PSD FOM values of 1.7. For the EJ-301 liquid scintillator detector, both PSD methods delivered the PSD FOM values of 1.79. With the same PSD variables, PSD performance was excellent in $300{\pm}100keVee$, $500{\pm}100keVee$, and $700{\pm}100keVee$ energy regions. This result shows that we can achieve an effective discrimination of neutrons from gamma rays using these scintillator detector systems. Conclusion: We applied both PSD methods to a stilbene and a liquid scintillator and optimized the PSD performance represented by FOM values. We observed a good separation performance of both scintillators combined with a high-speed digitizer and digital PSD. These results will provide reference values for the dual-particle imager we are developing, which can image both fast neutrons and gamma rays simultaneously.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.3925-3934
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• 2023

The importance of fast neutron detection for nuclear safeguards purposes has increased due to its potential advantages such as reasonable cost and higher precision for larger sample masses of nuclear materials. Pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) is inevitably used to discriminate neutron- and gamma-ray- induced signals from organic scintillators of very high gamma sensitivity. The light output (LO) threshold corresponding to several MeV of recoiled proton energy could be necessary to achieve fine PSD performance. However, this leads to neutron count losses and possible distortion of results obtained by neutron multiplicity counting (NMC)-based nuclear material accountancy (NMA). Moreover, conventional PSD techniques are not effective for counting of neutrons in a high-gamma-ray environment, even under a sufficiently high LO threshold. In the present work, PSD performance (figure-of-merit, FOM) according to LO bands was confirmed using a conventional charge comparison method (CCM) and compared with results obtained by convolution neural network (CNN)-based PSD algorithms. Also, it was attempted, for the first time ever, to reject fake neutron signals from distorted PSD regions where neutron-induced signals are normally detected. The overall results indicated that higher neutron detection efficiency with better accuracy could be achieved via CNN-based PSD algorithms.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3359-3366
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• 2023

In this study, a spiking cortical model (SCM) based n-g discrimination method is proposed. The SCM-based algorithm is compared with three other methods, namely: (i) the pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN), (ii) the charge comparison, and (iii) the zero-crossing. The objective evaluation criteria used for the comparison are the FoM-value and the time consumption of discrimination. Experimental results demonstrated that our proposed method outperforms the other methods significantly with the highest FoM-value. Specifically, the proposed method exhibits a 34.81% improvement compared with the PCNN, a 50.29% improvement compared with the charge comparison, and a 110.02% improvement compared with the zero-crossing. Additionally, the proposed method features the second-fastest discrimination time, where it is 75.67% faster than the PCNN, 70.65% faster than the charge comparison and 38.4% slower than the zero-crossing. Our study also discusses the role and change pattern of each parameter of the SCM to guide the selection process. It concludes that the SCM's outstanding ability to recognize the dynamic information in the pulse signal, improved accuracy when compared to the PCNN, and better computational complexity enables the SCM to exhibit excellent n-γ discrimination performance while consuming less time.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.111-117
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• 2008

The new type phoswich detector consisting of the ZnS(Ag) and plastic scintillator for alpha/beta-ray simultaneous counting was developed for monitoring radiological contamination inside pipes. The detection performance was estimated using the PSD (pulse shape discrimination) method as a function of distance between the scintillator and radioactive source. The attenuation of particles traveling through a thin film for preventing the detector from being contaminated was experimentally estimated. It is concluded from our investigation that the phoswich detector developed can provide a sufficient alpha/beta-ray discrimination. The application of a thin film for preventing the detector from being contaminated was proven to be feasible.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.508-514
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• 2005

In this paper, it was investigated the characteristics of PD(partial discharge) pulse shapes in oil and the possibility of TF(Time-Frequency) analysis for the discrimination of air corona in on-site PD measurement of oil transformers. For the purpose, single and multiple discharges combined with oil discharges and air corona were generated and measured by use of artificial models through the HFPD pulse detector and the oscilloscope. PD pulse shapes were different according to the type of defects, especially including air corona- pulses. Also, through the TF analysis, data clusters could be classified each other in the TF Map, even in the case of multiple discharges. Therefore, it is known that TF analysis could be aprlied for the improvement of on-site PD measurement in oil transformers.