IMPROMAT bvba - Park Diamant 3 - 2590 Berlaar BELGIUM
Tel.: +32 (0)3 482 41 44 - Fax: +32 (0)3 482 14 24 - E-mail: info@impromat.be
Radioactivity Measurement System
The Radioactivity Measurement System (RMS) is an industrial monitoring tool developed to check cast samples for radioactive contaminants emitting gamma radiation with an energy between 50 keV and 2 MeV.
Features
· a robust floor standing aluminum structure with adjustable working height
· NaI(Tl) scintillation detector
· Multi Channel Analyzer - Canberra uniSpec / PMT tube base with integrated HV/PREAMP/AMP/SCA to transform the gamma radiation into electrical pulses
· 7 cm lead shielding
· electrically driven conveyor belt with slides to sort Contaminated/Non Contaminated samples
OR
pneumatic drawer for sample input/output
· mechanical design adjustable according to customer’s specifications
· human interface for alarm visualization and resetting
· PC based version with spectrum visualization and isotope recognition
OR
Micro-controller based version with user friendly parameter configuration through LCD screen and on-board keyboard
· all measurement parameters and results are stored in a MS Access compatible database (PC based version)
· serial interface for communicating sample ID and measurements results
· dynamic background subtraction
· detection limit better than 0,1 Bq/g Co60-equivalent for a 100g sample and a measurement time of 60
Operating principle
A full energy calibration is performed by the manufacturer at the factory.
At the customer’s site the initial background value is measured. During normal operation, this background value will be dynamically adjusted to continuously adapt to the operating environment.
The metal samples are passing under the NaI(Tl) detector. After the measurement, the background value is subtracted from the measurement value and the result is evaluated against the alarm threshold. If gamma contamination is detected, the sample identification and measurement results are added to the database (PC version) and send to a master PC through serial interface.
The RMS is equipped with a NaI(Tl) scintillation crystal that is connected to a photomultiplier tube (PMT) that converts the scintillation pulses into electrical pulses of which the amplitude is proportional to the energy that the photon deposited into the detector.
The electrical pulses are amplified and sent to a Multi Channel Analyzer (MCA) converting them into a spectrum of counts versus energy. As gamma radiation is mono-energetic and each isotope disintegrates in its own specific manner, the spectrum gives information on the isotope being measured. However, the resolution of a scintillation detector is limited, and therefore it is not possible to perform a real isotope analysis, merely isotope recognition.
The measurement is performed on the entire energy range so that all radiation photons within the range of 50 keV to 2 MeV will be detected. The operator can setup different regions of interest for the isotopes he anticipates to find.
The RMS is equipped with a NaI(Tl) scintillation crystal that is connected to a photomultiplier tube (PMT) that converts the scintillation pulses into electrical pulses of which the amplitude is proportional to the energy that the photon deposited into the detector.
The NaI(Tl) scintillation detector is connected to a special scintillation detector base with integrated DC High Voltage, Preamplifier and SCA that produces TTL pulses. These pulses are being sent to the micro-controllers counter input.
The micro-controller performs a global counting, meaning that isotope identification is not possible. Therefore the result is expressed in CPS (Counts Per Second), this is the number of pulses the detector registers per second (this value is a measure for the radiation intensity of photons).
In order to see .dwf-files, please download the free software from Autodesk using the following link : www.autodesk.com