Principles of nuclear radiation detection : laboratory manual

392 Pages·1985·144.084 MB·English

by  Poston, John W., Eichholz, Geoffrey G

PRINCIPLES OF
NUCLEAR RADIATION
DETECTION
by
GEOFFREY G. EICHHOLZ
JOHN W. POSTON
School of Nuclear Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia
Boca Raton London New York
CRC Press is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
First published 1985 by CRC Press
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Reissued 2018 by CRC Press
© 1985 by Lewis Publishers, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Eichholz, Geoffrey G.
Principles of nuclear radiation detection.
Originally published: Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor
Science Publishers, c1976.
Includes bibliographies and index.
1. Nuclear counters. 2. Radiation—Measurement.
I. Poston, John W. II. Title.
QC787.C6E52 1985 539.7’7 85-19720
ISBN 0-87371-062-2
A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 85019720
Publisher’s Note
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ISBN 13: 978-1-315-89597-0 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-351-07507-7 (ebk)
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PREFACE
It has been about IS years since the last general textbooks on nuclear
radiation detection were written. In that time some fundamental changes
have occurred, both with respect to the complexity and sophistication of
counting equipment and to the more widespread use of radiation technology
in medicine and industry. Many of the changes reflect the replacement of
vacuum tubes by semiconductor devices and the consequent increase in speed
and variety of data handling capability; many others arise from the develop
ment and maturing of detector systems that were only in their infancy then.
For these reasons it seems appropriate to bring out a new book that repre
sents more clearly the present status of the field.
This book is intended for senior undergraduate and beginning graduate
students in physics, nuclear engineering, health physics and nuclear medicine,
and for specialized training courses for radiation protection personnel and
environmental safety engineers. To keep the size of the book manageable,
material has been selected to stress those detectors that are in widespread use.
Attempts have also been made to emphasize alternatives available in ap
proaching various measurement problems and to present the criteria by which
a choice among these alternatives may be made. Limited bibliographies are
provided to encourage further reading and numerical problems to develop a
feeling for the orders of magnitude of various system parameters. The SI
system of units has been adopted as far as practical, though the curie and the
roentgen have been retained where it seemed appropriate to reflect current
usage.
The contents represent the outcome of courses presented at the Georgia
Institute of Technology over many years, and we are grateful to our col
leagues, B. Kahn, M. T. Ryan and M.D. Matheny, for their helpful comments,
and especially to Dr. J. N. Davidson who contributed most of the material in
Chapter 3.
iii

Geoffrey G. Eichholz is Regents' Professor of Nuclear
Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
He obtained both his BSc and PhD degrees at the Uni
versity of Leeds, England, specializing in physics and
has since continued in various areas of applied physics.
Dr. Eichholz headed the Physics and Radiotracer
Subdivision of the Canadian Bureau of Mines for
twelve years, where he focused on problems of ura
nium ore analysis, industrial instrumentation, radiation protection and
industrial uses of radioisotope tracers. In 1963 he joined the faculty of
Georgia Tech where his research and teaching focus on radiation detec
tion problems, radiation effects on materials, environmental applica
tions of radiotracers and radiation safety. Professor Eichholz is author
of Environmental Aspects of Nuclear Power, published by Lewis Pub
lishers, and editor of the book Radioisotope Engineering.
John W. Poston is Professor of Nuclear Engineering
at Texas A&M University. He received his BS degree in
mathematics from Lynchburg College and MS and
PhD degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology
specializing in radiation protection. He also attended
the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology.
Dr. Poston was employed as an Experimental Reac
tor Physicist by the Babcock and Wilcox Company for
six years and was a staff member in the Health Physics Division at the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory for thirteen years. During this latter
period he was involved in various aspects of external and internal dosim
etry and was head of the Medical Physics and Internal Dosimetry Sec
tion. His research at ORNL concentrated on programs related to the
activities of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and the Interna
tional Commission on Radiological Protection. He joined the faculty of
Georgia Tech in 1977 as an Associate Professor where his teaching and
research interests included radiation detection and applied radiation pro
tection at nuclear facilities. During this period he collaborated with Dr.
Eichholz in authoring this text.
v

CREDITS
The authors are particularly indebted to the authors and publishers who so
kindly gave their permission to reproduce copyrighted material from the
sources listed below:
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Munich
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viii
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Radiation Intensity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Source Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Absorbed Dose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Characteristics of Nuclear Radiations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Detector Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Detector Signal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2. INTERACTION OF RADIATION WITH MATTER. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Excitation Processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Energy Transfer Mechanisms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Heavy Charged Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Beta Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
X-Rays and Gamma-Rays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Neutrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chemical and Biological Effects of Energy Deposition. . . . . . . . . 55
Radiation Damage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
References for Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3. COUNTING STATISTICS AND ERROR DETERMINATIONS ..... 63
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Uncertainty in the Measurement Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Statistics of Counting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Error Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
References for Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4. GAS-FILLED DETECTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
General Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Ionization Chamber Regime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
The Proportional Counter Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
ix