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Title: 135Xe measurements with a two-element CZT-based radioxenon detector for nuclear explosion monitoring

Journal Article · · Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). School of Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Measurement of elevated concentrations of xenon radioisotopes (131mXe, 133mXe, 133Xe and 135Xe) in the atmosphere has been shown to be a very powerful method for verifying whether or not a detected explosion is nuclear in nature. These isotopes are among the few with enough mobility and with half-lives long enough to make their detection at long distances realistic. Existing radioxenon detection systems used by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) suffer from problems such as complexity, need for high maintenance and memory effect. To study the response of CdZnTe (CZT) detectors to xenon radioisotopes and investigate whether it is capable of mitigating the aforementioned issues with the current radioxenon detection systems, a prototype detector utilizing two coplanar CZT detectors was built and tested at Oregon State University. The detection system measures xenon radioisotopes through beta-gamma coincidence technique by detecting coincidence events between the two detectors. In this paper, we introduce the detector design and report our measurement results with radioactive lab sources and 135Xe produced in the OSU TRIGA reactor. Minimum detectable concentration (MDC) for 135Xe was calculated to be 1.47±0.05 mBq/m3.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
Grant/Contract Number:
NA0002534
OSTI ID:
1367561
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1419102; OSTI ID: 1487104
Journal Information:
Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Vol. 169-170, Issue C; ISSN 0265-931X
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Radioxenon detection
Nuclear explosion monitoring
Beta-gamma coincidence
CZT
Coplanar detector
Digital pulse processing Digital pulse processing