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Plastic Scintillation Fibers for Radiological Contamination Surveys
Citation:
Lee, S. Plastic Scintillation Fibers for Radiological Contamination Surveys. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-17/370, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Plastic scintillation fiber (PSF) was developed and initially tested over five decades ago and has since been used to detect neutrons, x-rays and gamma-rays, track charged particles, and characterize particle beams in areas ranging from cancer treatment to wide area monitoring. PSF offers an alternative to traditional gamma-surveying techniques to survey contaminated surfaces. The advantageous features of PSF include long length, flexibility, the ability to conform to different shapes, water-/weather-proof application, and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. When combined with other pre-existing technologies, PSF can be a useful addition to the survey and remediation toolbox in responding to wide-area radiological contamination. Specifically, pairing PSF with vehicles to survey, stabilize and mark radioactive surfaces for subsequent decontamination would be of great benefit to responders. Surveying high-rise buildings to identify surfaces needing decontamination and to subsequently monitor decontamination progress would greatly improve the restoration of such buildings. Potential applications also include deploying arrays of PSF bundles to monitor and survey reservoirs and subsurface radioactive plumes. Collaboration with Japanese researchers at Japan Atomic Energy Agency is recommended to leverage PSF technology development and diverse contaminated surfaces resulting from the deposition of radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011. In this study, a prototype radiation detection system has been built employing plastic scintillation fiber optics. The system incorporates commercial off-the-shelf technology to display a waterfall plot showing dose rate along the 10-meter long fiber bundle. The system has also been tested with the fiber submerged in water, and performance was maintained, which is potentially of interest for water infrastructure protection.
Description:
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