A new approach to monitoring radon and radon progeny using a glass scintillator in a fiber bundle structure
Abstract
A Ce 3+-doped OXIDE glass possessing good thermal characteristics for fiber drawing was developed and drawn into 50 μm fibers. These fibers were close-packed to form a fiber bundle with channels between them. Radon gas was allowed to flow through these channels. The strategy was to hold radon atoms ( 222Rn) in the sensor for an extended time period and to give the alphas an immediate access to scintillators. Scintillations were converted into electrical pulses through the use of a PM-tube (photomultiplier tube). A prototype radon gas sensor using fiber bundles with a pore volume of 0.865 cm 3 was built and tested with radon gas. The results and modeling showed that steady state count rates could be obtained after ∼ 25 h and those values were proportional to the radon concentrations. The mean residence time of radon atoms at the sensor was found to be 113.2 s.
- Publication:
-
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A
- Pub Date:
- February 1995
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0168-9002(94)01235-0
- Bibcode:
- 1995NIMPA.356..537K