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Innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring

The verification regime of the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) is based on a network of three different waveform technologies together with global monitoring of aerosols and noble gas in order to detect, locate and identify a nuclear weapon explosion down to 1 kt TNT equivalent. In case of a lo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Le Petit, G., Cagniant, A., Morelle, M., Gross, P., Achim, P., Douysset, G., Taffary, T., Moulin, C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4513906/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26224943
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10967-013-2525-8
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author Le Petit, G.
Cagniant, A.
Morelle, M.
Gross, P.
Achim, P.
Douysset, G.
Taffary, T.
Moulin, C.
author_facet Le Petit, G.
Cagniant, A.
Morelle, M.
Gross, P.
Achim, P.
Douysset, G.
Taffary, T.
Moulin, C.
author_sort Le Petit, G.
collection PubMed
description The verification regime of the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) is based on a network of three different waveform technologies together with global monitoring of aerosols and noble gas in order to detect, locate and identify a nuclear weapon explosion down to 1 kt TNT equivalent. In case of a low intensity underground or underwater nuclear explosion, it appears that only radioactive gases, especially the noble gas which are difficult to contain, will allow identification of weak yield nuclear tests. Four radioactive xenon isotopes, (131m)Xe, (133m)Xe, (133)Xe and (135)Xe, are sufficiently produced in fission reactions and exhibit suitable half-lives and radiation emissions to be detected in atmosphere at low level far away from the release site. Four different monitoring CTBT systems, ARIX, ARSA, SAUNA, and SPALAX™ have been developed in order to sample and to measure them with high sensitivity. The latest developed by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is likely to be drastically improved in detection sensitivity (especially for the metastable isotopes) through a higher sampling rate, when equipped with a new conversion electron (CE)/X-ray coincidence spectrometer. This new spectrometer is based on two combined detectors, both exhibiting very low radioactive background: a well-type NaI(Tl) detector for photon detection surrounding a gas cell equipped with two large passivated implanted planar silicon chips for electron detection. It is characterized by a low electron energy threshold and a much better energy resolution for the CE than those usually measured with the existing CTBT equipments. Furthermore, the compact geometry of the spectrometer provides high efficiency for X-ray and for CE associated to the decay modes of the four relevant radioxenons. The paper focus on the design of this new spectrometer and presents spectroscopic performances of a prototype based on recent results achieved from both radioactive xenon standards and air sample measurements. Major improvements in detection sensitivity have been reached and quantified, especially for metastable radioactive isotopes (131m)Xe and (133m)Xe with a gain in minimum detectable activity (about 2 × 10(−3) Bq) relative to current CTBT SPALAX™ system (air sampling frequency normalized to 8 h) of about 70 and 30 respectively.
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spelling pubmed-45139062015-07-27 Innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring Le Petit, G. Cagniant, A. Morelle, M. Gross, P. Achim, P. Douysset, G. Taffary, T. Moulin, C. J Radioanal Nucl Chem Article The verification regime of the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) is based on a network of three different waveform technologies together with global monitoring of aerosols and noble gas in order to detect, locate and identify a nuclear weapon explosion down to 1 kt TNT equivalent. In case of a low intensity underground or underwater nuclear explosion, it appears that only radioactive gases, especially the noble gas which are difficult to contain, will allow identification of weak yield nuclear tests. Four radioactive xenon isotopes, (131m)Xe, (133m)Xe, (133)Xe and (135)Xe, are sufficiently produced in fission reactions and exhibit suitable half-lives and radiation emissions to be detected in atmosphere at low level far away from the release site. Four different monitoring CTBT systems, ARIX, ARSA, SAUNA, and SPALAX™ have been developed in order to sample and to measure them with high sensitivity. The latest developed by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is likely to be drastically improved in detection sensitivity (especially for the metastable isotopes) through a higher sampling rate, when equipped with a new conversion electron (CE)/X-ray coincidence spectrometer. This new spectrometer is based on two combined detectors, both exhibiting very low radioactive background: a well-type NaI(Tl) detector for photon detection surrounding a gas cell equipped with two large passivated implanted planar silicon chips for electron detection. It is characterized by a low electron energy threshold and a much better energy resolution for the CE than those usually measured with the existing CTBT equipments. Furthermore, the compact geometry of the spectrometer provides high efficiency for X-ray and for CE associated to the decay modes of the four relevant radioxenons. The paper focus on the design of this new spectrometer and presents spectroscopic performances of a prototype based on recent results achieved from both radioactive xenon standards and air sample measurements. Major improvements in detection sensitivity have been reached and quantified, especially for metastable radioactive isotopes (131m)Xe and (133m)Xe with a gain in minimum detectable activity (about 2 × 10(−3) Bq) relative to current CTBT SPALAX™ system (air sampling frequency normalized to 8 h) of about 70 and 30 respectively. Springer Netherlands 2013-05-17 2013 /pmc/articles/PMC4513906/ /pubmed/26224943 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10967-013-2525-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2013 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Le Petit, G.
Cagniant, A.
Morelle, M.
Gross, P.
Achim, P.
Douysset, G.
Taffary, T.
Moulin, C.
Innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring
title Innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring
title_full Innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring
title_fullStr Innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring
title_full_unstemmed Innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring
title_short Innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring
title_sort innovative concept for a major breakthrough in atmospheric radioactive xenon detection for nuclear explosion monitoring
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4513906/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26224943
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10967-013-2525-8
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