• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.3-9
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• 2000

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute acquired the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory phantom for calibration of germanium detectors used for in vivo measurement of radionuclides deposited in human lungs. The manufacturer inscribed concentric circles as a phoswich detector positioning guides on the phantom's torso plate and its overlay plates, and provided the effective thickness of the chest wall for each plate measured at locations over the circles. However, since the germanium detectors are of different sizes, the areas considered for phoswich detectors were no. longer applicable for the locations of the germanium detectors on the phantom. Therefore, we re-evaluated the effective thickness of the phantom to determine if the manufacturer' s data are valid for germanium detectors in use for in vivo lung counting or if new values must be implemented. Differences no more than 3% in effective thickness were found between the germanium detector regions to be used at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and the phoswich detector regions prescribed by the manufacturer.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.543-558
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• 2023

Currently, Japan is undertaking a nationwide project to measure and map radioactive contamination around Fukushima, as part of the efforts to restore normalcy following the nuclear accident. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) manages the Fukushima Environmental Safety Center, located approximately 20 km north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Minamisōma City, Fukushima Prefecture. In collaboration with the JAEA, this study involved conducting comparison experiments and analyses with radiation detectors in high radiation environments, a challenging task in Korean environments. Environmental radiation surveys were conducted using three types of detectors: CZT, NaI(Tl), and LaBr₃(Ce), across two contaminated areas. Dose rate values were converted using dose rate conversion factors for each detector type, and dose rate maps were subsequently created and compared. The detectors yielded similar results, demonstrating their feasibility and reliability in high radiation environments. The findings of this study are expected to be a crucial reference for enhancing the verification and supplementation of procedures and methods in future radiation measurements and mobile surveys in high-radiation environments, using these three types of radiation instruments.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.81-86
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• 2016

Background: For positron emission tomography (PET) application, cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) has been investigated by several institutes to replace detectors from a conventional system using photomultipliers or Silicon-photomultipliers (SiPMs). The spatial and energy resolution in using CZT can be superior to current scintillator-based state-of-the-art PET detectors. CZT has been under development for several years at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) to provide a high performance gamma ray detection, which needs a single crystallinity, a good uniformity, a high stopping power, and a wide band gap. Materials and Methods: Before applying our own grown CZT detectors in the prototype PET system, we investigated preliminary research with a developed discrete type data acquisition (DAQ) system for coincident events at 128 anode pixels and two common cathodes of two CZT detectors from Redlen. Each detector has a $19.4{\times}19.4{\times}6mm^3$ volume size with a 2.2 mm anode pixel pitch. Discrete amplifiers consist of a preamplifier with a gain of $8mV{\cdot}fC^{-1}$ and noise of 55 equivalent noise charge (ENC), a $CR-RC^4$ shaping amplifier with a $5{\mu}s$ peak time, and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) driver. The DAQ system has 65 mega-sample per second flash ADC, a self and external trigger, and a USB 3.0 interface. Results and Discussion: Characteristics such as the current-to-voltage curve, energy resolution, and electron mobility life-time products for CZT detectors are investigated. In addition, preliminary results of gamma ray imaging using 511 keV of a $^{22}Na$ gamma ray source were obtained. Conclusion: In this study, the DAQ system with a CZT radiation sensor was successfully developed and a PET image was acquired by two sets of the developed DAQ system.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.325-330
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• 2011

To predict the details of flow in industrial process unit, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is a promising technique. Recently, industrial SPECT based on medical system has developed by researchers of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and Hanyang University. In the present study, to confirm the effect of the number of detectors on image quality, and determine the optimal number of detectors in industrial SPECT, industrial SPECT system with various geometries were evaluated by the Monte Carlo simulation. CsI(Tl) detectors ($12mm{\times}12mm{\times}20mm$) with collimators (the geometric resolution of collimator $R_g$ was 4 cm at the center of the 30 cm diameter cylindrical vessel object) were modeled in a hexagonal array, and the point sources of $^{99m}Tc$, $^{68}Ga$, and $^{137}Cs$ were simulated at the center of the cylindrical vessel object using the MCNPX code. Then, the reconstruction images of each geometry were reconstructed using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. In this study, the reciprocity theorem was used to improve computation time required for system matrix of the EM algorithm. The result shows that the resolution of the reconstructed image was significantly improved by increasing the number of detectors in industrial SPECT system and more than 60 detectors will be required for the resolution of the reconstructed image.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.94.2-94.2
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• 2011

Electron microbursts, energetic electron precipitation having duration less than 1 sec, have been thought to be generated by chorus wave and electron interactions. While the coincidence of chorus and microburst occurrence supports the wave-particle interaction theory, more crucial evidences have not been observed to explain the origin of microbursts. We propose the measurement of energy dispersion of microbursts could be an evidence supporting wave-particle theory. During chorus waves propagate along magnetic field, the resonance condition should be satisfied at different magnetic latitude for different energy electrons. If we observed electron microbursts at low altitude, the arrival time of different energy electrons should make unique dispersion structures. In order to observe such energy dispersion, we need a detector having fast time resolution and wide energy range. Our study is motivated from defining the time resolution and energy range of the detectors required to measure microburst energy dispersions. We performed test particles simulation to investigate how electrons interact with simple coherent waves like chorus waves. We compute a large number of electron's trajectories and successfully produce energy dispersion structures expected when microbursts are observed with 10 msec time resolution detectors at the altitude of 600 km. These results provide useful information in designing electron detectors for the future mission.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.273-280
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• 2014

The spectrum weighted responses of various detectors were calculated to provide guidance on the proper selection and use of survey instruments on the basis of their energy response characteristics on the neutron fields. To yield the spectrum weighted response, the detector response functions of 17 neutron-measuring devices were numerically folded with each of the produced calibration neutron spectra through the in-house developed software 'K-SWR'. The detectors' response functions were taken from the IAEA Technical Reports Series No. 403 (TRS-403). The reference neutron fields of 21 kinds with 2 spectra groups with different proportions of thermal and fast neutrons have been produced using neutrons from the $^{241}Am$-Be sources held in a graphite pile, a bare $^{241}Am$-Be source, and a DT neutron generator. Fluence-average energy ($E_{ave}$) varied from 3.8 MeV to 16.9 MeV, and the ambient-dose-equivalent rate [$H^*(10)/h$] varied from 0.99 to 16.5 mSv/h.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.196-208
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• 2017

This study presents an experimental work in a petrochemical company for scanning a buried pipeline using $Tc^{99m}$ radiotracer based on the measured velocity changes, in order to determine the flow reduction along a pipeline. In this work, $Tc^{99m}$ radiotracer was injected into the pipeline and monitored by sodium iodide scintillation detectors located at several positions along the pipeline. The flow velocity has been calculated between every two consecutive detectors along the pipeline. Practically, six experiments have been carried out using two different data acquisition systems, each of them being connected to four detectors. During the fifth experiment, a bypass was discovered between the scanned pipeline and another buried parallel pipeline connected after the injection point. The results indicate that the bypass had a bad effect on the volumetric flow rate in the scanned pipeline.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.731-737
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• 2019

In this study, a new measurement method based on voltage transients in CdZnTe detectors response to low energy photon irradiations is applied to measure the electron mobility (${\mu}_e$) and electron mobility-lifetime product $({\mu}{\tau})_e$ in a CdZnTe detector. In the proposed method, the pulse rise times are derived from low energy photon response to 59.5 keV($^{241}Am$), 88 keV($^{109}Cd$) and 122 keV($^{57}Co$) ${\gamma}-rays$ for the irradiation of the cathode surface at each detector for different bias voltages. The electron $({\mu}{\tau})_e$ product was then determined by measuring the variation in the photopeak amplitude as a function of bias voltage at a given photon energy using a pulse-height analyzer. The $({\mu}{\tau})_e$ values were found to be $(9.6{\pm}1.4){\times}10^{-3}cm^2V^{-1}$ for $1000mm^3$, $(8.4{\pm}1.6){\times}10^{-3}cm^2V^{-1}$ for $1687.5mm^3$ and $(7.6{\pm}1.1){\times}10^{-3}cm^2V^{-1}$ for $2250mm^3$ CdZnTe detectors. Those results were then compared with the literature $({\mu}{\tau})_e$ values for CdZnTe detectors. The present results indicate that, the electron mobility ${\mu}_e$ and electron $({\mu}{\tau})_e$ values in CdZnTe detectors can be measured easily by applying voltage transients response to low energy photons, utilizing a fast signal acquisition and data reduction and evaluation.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2004

Results of EGS4 based calculations to study the spatial resolution of gas detectors are described. The calculations include radial distribution of electrons generated by photons of various energies penetrating into variable thickness of Ar and Xe gas layers. Given a desired spatial resolution, the maximum allowed thickness of gas layer for each energy level is determined. In order to obtain 0.1mm spatial resolution, the maximum thickness for the Ar gas is found to be 2mm for photon energies below 14keV while the optimum energy of photons for Xe gas with the same thickness is about 45keV. The results of calculations performed to compare the number of electrons generated by CsI coated micro-channel plate and the number of electrons generated by the Ar and Xe gas layers are described. The results show that the number of electrons generated by the gases is about 10 times higher than the one generated by CsI coated micro-channel plate. A few sample gray scale images generated by these calculations are included.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2004

Recently, a new sintered pellet-type LiF:Mg,Cu,Na,Si TL detector which has a high sensitivity and good reusability, named KLT-300(KAERI LiF:Mg,Cu,Na,Si TL detector), was developed by the variation of the dopants concentrations and the parameters of the preparation procedure at KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). In this study, the thermoluminescent characteristics of the newly developed TL detectors were investigated. The sensitivity of the TL detector was compared with that of the TLD-100 by light integration. The dose linearity of the detector was tested from $10^{-6}$ Gy up to 30 Gy. The dose response was very linear up to 10 Gy and a sublinear response was observed at higher doses. The energy response of the detector was studied for photon energies from 20 keV to 662 keV. The result shows that a maximum response of 1.004 at 53 keV and a minimum response of 0.825 at 20 keV were observed. The reproducibility study for the TL detector was also carried out. The coefficients of variation for each detector separately did not exceed 0.016, and for all the 10 detectors collectively was 0.0054. Lower limit of detection for the detector was investigated at 70 nGy by the Harshaw 4500 TLD Reader and the residual signal of the TL detector was found to be $0.57\%$.