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An Advanced Avalanche-Photodiode Based Spectroscopic Radiation Monitor--Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc., 44 Hunt Street, Watertown, MA 02472-4699; 617-926-1167
Dr. Mitchell Woodring, Principal Investigator
Dr. Gerald Entine, Business Official
DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-99ER82866
Amount: $750,000
The Department of Energy must reduce the time for treating and disposing of radioactive wastes from facilities undergoing decontamination and decommissioning. Currently, site assessment and monitoring is too slow and too costly because the required analysis techniques are located off-site. This project will design, develop, and fabricate a high sensitivity radiation imager that is directly applicable to the decontamination and decom-missioning of its facilities. The device will be based upon the development of a novel detector, a dual-diode-backed silicon avalanche photodiode (APD). This detector was designed, fabricated, and tested in Phase I. The ability to acquire energy spectra with the 2x2 diode-backed APD array coupled to a sodium-doped cesium scintillator was demonstrated while operating in a row-column addressing arrangement. Collimated gamma-ray sources were used to demonstrate the position sensitivity of the device. A signal processing, storage, and control system was developed and used to examine the performance of the array. In Phase II, the radiation imaging system will be further refined, and system field tests will be conducted to determine performance and operational characteristics.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: An instrument with the ability to image radioactive sources could find use at nuclear research facilities, hospitals and clinics, nuclear power generation plants, nuclear fuel production facilities, and similar
locations where radioactive sources are used or can be found