Abstract
The detection of radioactive sources in an urban setting is greatly complicated by natural background radiation, which emanates from various materials including roadways, sidewalks, soil, and building exteriors. The method presented and demonstrated here represents an effort to characterize the concentration of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) in these types of materials. The location surveyed in this work was the Fort Indiantown Gap Combined Arms Collective Training Facility in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Over 70 measurements with a high-purity germanium detector were performed to ascertain the NORM concentrations present in the soil, asphalt, gravel, concrete, and walls found throughout the site. Monte Carlo radiation transport calculations were used to obtain detector responses for these various geometries and materials to convert these measurements into NORM concentration estimates. Finally, synthetic spectra were simulated using the predicted source terms and compared to actual measurements, showing acceptable agreement.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 325-335 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Nuclear Technology |
| Volume | 203 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2 2018 |
Funding
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or to allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The work was sponsored by the Enabling Capabilities for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Program Area (James Peltz, program manager) of the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, National Nuclear Security Administration (project OR17-V-MUSE-PD3UJ). The authors would like to thank the team of experimentalists who helped take the HPGe measurements. From Oak Ridge National Laboratory, this includes Steven L. Cleveland, Gregory G. Davidson, Irakli Garishvili, Donald E. Hornback, Catherine E. Romano, and Justin M. VonMoss. From the Remote Sensing Laboratory, this includes Henry L. Adams, Sarah E. Bender, D. Andre Butler, Joshua C. Jahn, Lance K. McLean, and L. Jason Moore. Brian J. Quiter and Mark S. Bandstra from Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory also helped. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or to allow others to do so, for U.S. government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The work was sponsored by the Enabling Capabilities for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Program Area (James Peltz, program manager) of the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, National Nuclear Security Administration (project OR17-V-MUSE-PD3UJ). The authors would like to thank the team of experimentalists who helped take the HPGe measurements. From Oak Ridge National Laboratory, this includes Steven L. Cleveland, Gregory G. Davidson, Irakli Garishvili, Donald E. Hornback, Catherine E. Romano, and Justin M. VonMoss. From the Remote Sensing Laboratory, this includes Henry L. Adams, Sarah E. Bender, D. Andre Butler, Joshua C. Jahn, Lance K. McLean, and L. Jason Moore. Brian J. Quiter and Mark S. Bandstra from Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory also helped.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE Public Access Plan | |
| Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
| U.S. Government | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| National Nuclear Security Administration | OR17-V-MUSE-PD3UJ |
| Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation |
Keywords
- Naturally occurring radioactive material quantification
- background radiation
- urban environment