Collaborative Proposal: DUSEL R&D at the Kimballton Underground Facility (ICP-MS Confirmation, Material Assay, and Radon Reduction)

Back, Henning O.

North Carolina State Univeristy

关键词: Radioactivity;    Radiation Detectors;    Nondestructive Analysis;    46 Instrumentation Related To Nuclear Science And Technology;    Gamma Spectroscopy;   

DOI  :  10.2172/993504
RP-ID  :  FINAL REPORT
RP-ID  :  FG02-07ER41484
RP-ID  :  993504

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Experiments measuring rare events, such as neutrinoless double beta (0{nu}{beta}{beta}) decay, and those searching for, or measuring very weakly interacting particles, such as low energy solar neutrino experiments or direct dark matter searches, require ever lower backgrounds; particularly those from radioactive contamination of detector materials. The underground physics community strives to identify and develop materials with radioactive contamination at permissible levels, and to remove radioactive contaminants from materials, but each such material represents a separate dedicated research and development effort. This project attempted to help these research communities by expanding the capabilities in the United States, for indentifying low levels of radioactive contamination in detector materials through gamma ray spectroscopy. Additionally the project tried to make a cross comparison between well established gamma ray spectroscopy techniques for identifying radioactive contaminations and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy, which is a relatively new method for searching for uranium and thorium in materials. The project also studied the removal of radioactive radon gas for laboratory air, which showed that an inexpensive technologically simple radon scrubber can potentially be used for homes or businesses with high radon levels even after the employment of other mitigation techniques.