Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 790-1 Motooka Ohtsuka, Tomioka Town, Futaba-gun, Fukushima, 979-1151, Japan.
New Industry Creation Hatchery Center (NICHe), Tohoku University, 6-6-10 AobaAoba-ku, AramakiSendai, Miyagi, 980-8579, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 15;11(1):5948. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-84515-z.
The internal exposure of workers who inhale plutonium dioxide particles in nuclear facilities is a crucial matter for human protection from radiation. To determine the activity median aerodynamic diameter values at the working sites of nuclear facilities in real time, we developed a high-resolution alpha imager using a ZnS(Ag) scintillator sheet, an optical microscope, and an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device camera. Then, we designed and applied a setup to measure a plutonium dioxide particle and identify the locations of the individual alpha particles in real time. Employing a Gaussian fitting, we evaluated the average spatial resolution of the multiple alpha particles was evaluated to be 16.2 ± 2.2 μmFWHM with a zoom range of 5 ×. Also, the spatial resolution for the plutonium dioxide particle was 302.7 ± 4.6 µmFWHM due to the distance between the plutonium dioxide particle and the ZnS(Ag) scintillator. The influence of beta particles was negligible, and alpha particles were discernible in the alpha-beta particle contamination. The equivalent volume diameter of the plutonium dioxide particle was calculated from the measured count rate. These results indicate that the developed alpha imager is effective in the plutonium dioxide particle measurements at the working sites of nuclear facilities for internal exposure dose evaluation.
在核设施中,吸入钚二氧化物颗粒的工人的内部辐射暴露是保护人类免受辐射的关键问题。为了实时确定核设施工作场所的钚二氧化物颗粒的中值空气动力学直径值,我们使用 ZnS(Ag)闪烁体片、光学显微镜和电子倍增电荷耦合器件 (EMCCD) 相机开发了一种高分辨率的α成像仪。然后,我们设计并应用了一种设置来实时测量钚二氧化物颗粒并识别单个α粒子的位置。采用高斯拟合,评估了多个α粒子的平均空间分辨率,在 5×的缩放范围内,平均空间分辨率为 16.2±2.2 μm FWHM。此外,由于钚二氧化物颗粒与 ZnS(Ag)闪烁体之间的距离,钚二氧化物颗粒的空间分辨率为 302.7±4.6 μm FWHM。β粒子的影响可以忽略不计,并且可以在α-β粒子污染中识别出α粒子。从测量的计数率计算出钚二氧化物颗粒的等效体积直径。这些结果表明,所开发的α成像仪可有效用于核设施工作场所的钚二氧化物颗粒测量,以评估内部暴露剂量。