Radiation Monitoring

Question 1

Alpha interactions

Answer 1

kinetic energy lost with Coulombic interactions; causes electrons become excited or stripped from parent atom

Question 2

Beta interactions

Answer 2

larger energy lost with Coulombic interactions than alpha due to similar mass; emits gamma radiation when passing close to large nucleus (Bremsstrahlung)

Question 3

Gamma interactions

Answer 3

Photoelectric effect (absorbed by bound electron); Compton Scattering (scattered by bound electron); Pair Production (less than 1.022 MeV converts into electron positron pair)

Question 4

Neutron interactions

Answer 4

transfer some energy to target nucleus; absorption by target nucleus can result in ejection of other particles of photons

Question 5

Ionization enabled detection

Answer 5

collection of radiation interactions (ionization) when an electric field is applied to a detector (charge motion and collection); all charge collected at the same time causes pulse peak at specific isotope keV

Question 6

gas filled detectors

Answer 6

gas filled volume with voltage applied to central conductor; radiation creates ion pairs

Question 7

Ionization Chamber region on pulse size vs. applied voltage plot

Answer 7

only primary ionization are created and independent of voltage variations

Question 8

Proportional region on pulse size vs. applied voltage plot

Answer 8

Primary and secondary ionizations which scale with voltage applied

Question 9

Geiger-Mueller region on pulse size vs. applied voltage plot

Answer 9

Ionizations saturate the detector volume with avalanches of ion pairs, which produce max pulses

Question 10

DAC

Answer 10

derived air concentration; the concentration of a given radionuclide in air which if breathed for 2000 average person hours under normal work results in intake one annual limit on intake

Question 11

HPGe Spectrometer

Answer 11

gamma ray assay

Question 12

LSC

Answer 12

beta radioactivity assay