A LOW BACKGROUND BETA-RAY SCINTILLATION SPECTROMETER USING A COINCIDENCE METHOD WITH A GEIGER COUNTER

Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1961 · Nuclear Instr. & Methods

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0029-554X(61)90168-9· OSTI ID:4832021

Tanaka, E

The design and performance of a new type beta -ray scintil lation spectrometer suitable for measuring very low beta activities of solids are described. The spectrometer consists of a scintillation counter using a plastic scintillator and a gas flow G-M counter located in a hollow of the scintillator, and the coincidence operation between these two counters is applied. Cosmic ray counts are rejected by pulse height analysis. Inside the 10 cm lead shield the background counting rate is less than that of conventional low background counters using anti-coincidence shields, and a typical background counting rate of 0.15 cpm for the energy range from 0 5 to 2.5 Mev is obtained. This system can also be used as a low background counting device in a limited energy range. For relatively high energy beta emitters, the coincidence countings are used between scintillation pulses and G-M pulses. In this case, the background is reduced by rejecting cosmic ray counts, high and low energy components of the gamma background and noise or spurious counts of the detectors. For low energy mitters. on the other hand, the anti-coincidence countings are suitable, then the cosmic ray counts and high energy components of the gamma background can be rejected. (auth)

• Research Organization: National Inst. of Radiological Sciences, Kurosuna-cho, Chiba- shi, Japan
• NSA Number: NSA-16-003211
• OSTI ID: 4832021
• Journal Information: Nuclear Instr. & Methods, Journal Name: Nuclear Instr. & Methods Vol. Vol: 13
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BACKGROUND
BETA DECAY
BETA SPECTROMETERS
COINCIDENCE METHODS
COSMIC RADIATION
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY LEVELS
ENGINEERING AND EQUIPMENT
GAMMA RADIATION
GEIGER-MUELLER COUNTERS
PERFORMANCE
PLANNING
PULSE ANALYZERS
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SHIELDING
SOLIDS