SEDL / STP / STP261-EB / STP44337S

Instrumentation for Nucleonics

Emmons, A. H.
Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Pages: 10    Published: Jan 1960

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Abstract

It is easy to be dazzled and baffled by the complex counting instrumentation presently on the market. There are a number of criteria that are usefully applied to the selection of the proper instrumentation to perform a particular analysis. The first and foremost criteria that must be applied to any system is this: will the assembly do the job? By the assembly, we refer to a detector for radiation and a quantitative indicating device. Whether an assembly will do the job, and the selection that must be made purchasing this assembly, is quite dependent upon the identity of the isotope which one proposes to use in an investigation. To illustrate: if quantitative analysis of a hard beta emitter is to be carried out (hard, meaning of energy greater than 0.3 mev), one particular type of detector is selected, whereas, if it is desired to count a soft beta-emitting isotope one may be forced to select a totally different type of counting arrangement. If the particular isotope that is being used is a gamma emitter, it permits using another type of counting system and, finally, if by some chance the analysis involves the evaluation of an alpha emitter, a still different type of counting assembly may be selected.