Ultra-clean underground counting facility for low-level environmental samples
An underground counting facility has been designed and constructed to improve detection of low-level radionuclides. The 3.0 x 4.3 x 2.4 m counting chamber is placed 14.3 m below ground, has 10.2-cm thick walls of pre-WWII naval armor plate, and is further shielded by a minimum of 1.2 m of specular hematite. The total overburden of shielding is equivalent to 31.7 m of water. Careful selection of building materials and a special air filtering system maintain a cleanroom environment with minimum contamination potential. Background improvements are noted relative to an earlier ground-level counting chamber with 30.5-cm-thick walls of pre-WWII naval armor plate. Performance appraisals of facility detectors include a large dual NaI(Tl) coincidence system, three smaller NaI(Tl) detectors, and HPGe well detecotr, and gas proportional and Geiger counters. Major electronics for the detectors are located at a ground level control center to eliminate any associated backgrounds. Because an individual sample may be counted several days, uninterruptable power is used. An IBM PC/XT computer processes spectra from multi-channel analyzers using custom-developed software. 25 refs., 15 figs., 7 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Lab., Aiken, SC (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-76SR00001
- OSTI ID:
- 7073099
- Report Number(s):
- DP-1747; ON: DE88009235
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
42 ENGINEERING
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIATION MONITORING
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
BUILDING MATERIALS
AIR FILTERS
BACKGROUND RADIATION
CLEAN ROOMS
CONSTRUCTION
DATA ANALYSIS
DESIGN
GEIGER-MUELLER COUNTERS
HIGH-PURITY GE DETECTORS
NAI DETECTORS
PROPORTIONAL COUNTERS
RADON
SHIELDING
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FILTERS
FLUIDS
GASES
GE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
ISOTOPES
MATERIALS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MONITORING
NONMETALS
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATIONS
RARE GASES
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
SOLID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
440300* - Miscellaneous Instruments- (-1989)
420200 - Engineering- Facilities
Equipment
& Techniques