Bismuth-fission detectors for high energy nucleons: II. Proton and neutron responses

A critical requirement for the ²⁰⁹Bi-fission detector is the knowledge of its response as a function of energy for both neutrons and protons. For this reason, stacks of ²⁰⁹Bi-fission detectors have been exposed to proton beams of 100 and 150 MeV at the Paul Sherrer Institute. Similar stacks have been exposed to neutron beams of 100 and 160 MeV at the Svedberg Laboratory from Uppsala University. The calibrations data with neutrons have been compared with those obtained with protons of the same energies. This comparison has proved that the response of ²⁰⁹Bi-fission detector for neutrons is two to three times smaller than that for protons at least in the range of nucleon energy up to 150 MeV.     

Measurement of target fragments produced by 160 MeV proton beam in aluminum and polyethylene with CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors

Production of target fragments from reactions of 160 MeV proton beams in aluminum and polyethylene was measured with CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors (PNTD). Due to the detection limit of PNTD, primary protons cannot be detected; only low-energy short-range target fragments are registered. As a feasibility study, a so called “two step etching method” was employed to get the linear energy transfer (LET) spectra, absorbed dose, and dose equivalent. This method is discussed in this paper, together with the measured results.     

Radon epidemiology and nuclear track detectors: Methods, results and perspectives

An important achievement of nuclear track detectors is that they render it possible to measure a large number of radon concentrations. These are necessary for epidemiological studies aimed to estimate the lung cancer risk due to exposure to radon and its decay products in dwellings. Many case–control studies were conducted in the last 15 years in Europe, North America and China, in order to avoid the uncertainties associated with the risk extrapolation from epidemiological studies on miners exposed in underground mines. In this review paper, the main methodological issues of these studies are introduced: confounding factors, the impact of radon exposure uncertainties on the estimated risk, the retrospective assessment of radon exposure through the measurement of surface concentration on glass objects, the interaction between radon and smoking, statistical methods to analyze data and combine studies, etc. As regards the estimated risk of lung cancer, the main characteristics and results of each study are reported and discussed, together with the results of meta-analyses and, most importantly, of the three recently published analyses that pool 2 Chinese, 7 North American, and 13 European studies. Finally, some conclusions are given and a brief reference is made to ongoing studies.     

Measurement of fast neutron induced fission cross section of thorium using Lexan plastic track detector

Fission-track registration characteristics of Lexan solid state nuclear track detectors have been used to measure the fast neutron induced fission cross section of²³²Th. The fast neutrons (?14.2MeV) were produced with the help of an AN-400 model Van-de-Graaff accelerator at Banaras Hindu University laboratory using³H(²H,n)⁴He reaction and were used to irradiate the fissile target deposited on the plastic detector. The track densityT, registered on the plastic detector is related to the fission cross sectionσ _f, through the relationT=knσ _føt wheren is the number of fissile atoms per cm² in the deposit, ø is the neutron flux,k is fission track registration efficiency andt is the time of irradiation. The fission cross sectionσ _f of²³²Th, relative to the well measured fission cross section of²³⁸U, was found to be 0.36±0.04 barn.     

Damage track detectors in radioprotection dosimetry: a novel approach

Limited sensitivity and unpredictable background are the major drawbacks of damage track detectors in the assessment of low neutron doses and low concentrations of alpha emitters in biological and environmental samples. The simplest way to increase the sensitivity of the damage track detectors is to increase both the exposure time and the detector area. However, the strong variability of the background may make this task often impossible. This background problem has been finally solved by a new registration method based on counting coincidence spots in geometrically matched pair of detectors. By using spark counting and electrochemical etching, both of which produce spots visible at low magnification, coincidences induced in two matched detector-surfaces by a few-microns-long tracks can be easily seen. This novel counting approach can be considered just the converse of those used in the past with Bi-fission detectors and cosmic ray stacks.     

Use of phosphate glass detectors for study of curium-242 cluster radioactivity

The effect α particle fluences (3 × 10³−2 × 10¹⁵ cm ⁻²) on properties of the two types of phosphate glass detectors with different compositions was studied. It was shown that the registration properties of glass detectors depended on the α particle fluence, spatial distribution of the α particle paths, and glass type. The critical α particle fluences, above which the detector properties changed, were determined.     

Application of quartz glass tubes as the track detectors for chemical identification of short-lived isotopes of elements 104, 105 and 106

The quartz glass open chromatographic columns with thermal gradient, which usually were used for the investigation of chemical properties of short-lived Z104 nuclides, were first used as the track detectors of spontaneously fissioning isotopes of elements 104, 105 and 106. The recoil nuclei of these elements were captured by the flow of gaseous chlorides then go to the quartz tube with reducing thermal gradient 400°C-100°C. The quartz tube was etched in 40% HF. The tracks due to spontaneous fission of isotopes ²⁵⁹104, ²⁶²105 and ²⁶³106 which were etched at the internal wall of quartz tubes were counted under optical microscope.     

中高能电子的散射全截面测量装置

以电子束流光学系统为重点,介绍一台500～4250eV电子的绝对散射全截面测量装置,给出了电子枪和五圆筒透镜的电子光学设计,提供实验对电子光学系统的检验,提出对装置的改进设想。     

中高能电子被氟代甲烷散射的总截面计算

利用可加性规则,使用Hartree-Fock 波函数,采用被束缚原子概念修正过的复光学势,首次在100～5 000eV内对电子被具有较多电子数的氟代甲烷分子散射的总截面进行了计算,且将计算值与实验值及经验公式进行了比较,得出了被束缚原子概念修正过的复光学势可成功用于"电子-氟代甲烷"散射总截面计算的结论;研究了"电子-氟代甲烷"的散射总截面与目标分子总电子数及电子入射能量间的关系,初步分析了结构因子与总电荷数相关的原因,并指出了对复光学势进行进一步修正时应遵循的原则.