TITLE:
Evaluation of Natural Radioactivity Levels for Structural Material Used in the Construction of the Neutrino Detector
AUTHORS:
Vladimir G. Zinovyev, Anatolii P. Serebrov, Ivan A. Mitropolsky, Yuriy E. Loginov, Georgiy I. Shulyak, Tatyana M. Tyukavina, Sergey L. Sakharov, Anatoly V. Chernyj
KEYWORDS:
Spontaneous Fission, Radioactive Decay Chain, α-Decay, Radionuclide, Branching Factor
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology,
Vol.5 No.1,
January
29,
2015
ABSTRACT: In this work, the evaluation of natural
radioactivity and spontaneous fission rates was performed for 8 nuclides from
the natural radioactive 238U, 235U and 232Th
decay chains. For this purpose, three samples of structural materials of the
neutrino detector, i.e. aluminum,
titanium and glass were analyzed by gamma spectroscopy and by neutron
activation analysis to quantify a specific radioactivity of the samples.
According to the results of this investigation, glass and aluminum samples have
maximum values of the mean uranium concentrations 7.3(7) × 10-4% and
3.1(6) × 10-5%, respectively, while the lowest value for mean
concentration of the uranium was found in titanium samples to be 4.7(3) × 10-6%.
Aluminum sample had maximum values of the mean thorium concentrations, 2.5(8) ×
10-3%, while the lowest value for mean concentration of the thorium
was found in titanium samples to be 6.2(3) × 10-7%.