A new passive radon-thoron discriminative measurement system

A new passive radon-thoron discriminative measurement system has been developed for monitoring radon and thoron individually. It consists of a 'couple' of passive integrating devices with a CR39 nuclear track detector (NTD). The experimental prototype is based on the application of a new concept of NTD instrument developed at ENEA, named Alpha-PREM, acronym of piston radon exposure meter, which allows controlling the detector exposure with a patented sampling technique (Int. Eu. Pat. and US Pat.). The 'twin diffusion chambers system' was based on two A-PREM devices consisting of the standard device, named NTD-Rn, and a modified version, named NTD-Rn/Tn, which was set up to improve thoron sampling efficiency of the diffusion chamber, without changing the geometry and the start/stop function of the NTD-Rn device. Coupling devices fitted on each device allowed getting a system, which works as a double-chamber structure when deployed at the monitoring position. In this paper both technical and physical aspects are considered.

Close-geometry efficiency calibration of p-type HPGe detectors with a Cs-134 point source

When close-geometry detector calibration is required in gamma-ray spectrometry, single-line emitters are usually used in order to avoid true coincidence summing effects. We managed to overcome this limitation by developing a method for the determination of the efficiency of p-type HPGe detectors in close-geometry with a calibrated Cs-134 point source. No separate determination of coincidence summing correction factors is required and a single measurement furnishes the full-energy-peak efficiencies in the 475-1365 keV energy range.