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Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Intelligent Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2020) | Viewed by 39537

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Kelum Gamage

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
Interests: educational development and innovation; engineering education; quality assurance and enhancement in engineering programmes; radiation detection and instrumentation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. C. James Taylor

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Guest Editor

Engineering Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YR, UK
Interests: control engineering; time series analysis; robotics and autonomous systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleague,

Radiation sensing is important in many fields, and it poses significant challenges for sensing instrument designers. Radiation sensing instruments, particularly for nuclear decommissioning and security applications, are required to operate in unknown environments and should detect and characterise radiation fields in real-time. This Special Issue solicits recent advances in radiation sensing technology, with a particular focus on instrument design and deployment.

The issue will report on the latest developments in the use of ground-based and aerial robots in the deployment of such sensors. For example, robots reduce the need for manned entry into radioactive environments e.g. areas of high beta/gamma mixed wastes, a widespread problem in the context of UK nuclear power plants. These are challenging and unstructured environments for the deployment of robotic solutions.

This Special Issue will cover both theory and practice. Articles concerning, for example, radiation sensing instrument design, real-time data processing, radiation simulation and experimental work, robot design, control systems, task planning and radiation shielding will all be considered, among other relevant topics.

Dr. Kelum A. A. Gamage
Prof. C. James Taylor
Guest Editors

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Radiation sensing technologies
Radiation imaging
Radiation characterisation techniques
Nuclear reactors monitoring and control
Remote handling of radioactive waste
Mobile robots
Robots for unstructured environments
Decommissioning and remote handling
Nuclear safeguards, homeland security
Nuclear waste management

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 5618 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reconstruction of Compton Edges in Plastic Gamma Spectra Using Deep Autoencoder

by Byoungil Jeon, Youhan Lee, Myungkook Moon, Jongyul Kim and Gyuseong Cho

Sensors 2020, 20(10), 2895; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20102895 - 20 May 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3336

Abstract

Plastic scintillation detectors are widely utilized in radiation measurement because of their unique characteristics. However, they are generally used for counting applications because of the energy broadening effect and the absence of a photo peak in their spectra. To overcome their weaknesses, many studies on pseudo spectroscopy have been reported, but most of them have not been able to directly identify the energy of incident gamma rays. In this paper, we propose a method to reconstruct Compton edges in plastic gamma spectra using an artificial neural network for direct pseudo gamma spectroscopy. Spectra simulated using MCNP 6.2 software were used to generate training and validation sets. Our model was trained to reconstruct Compton edges in plastic gamma spectra. In addition, we aimed for our model to be capable of reconstructing Compton edges even for spectra having poor counting statistics by designing a dataset generation procedure. Minimum reconstructible counts for single isotopes were evaluated with metric of mean averaged percentage error as 650 for ⁶⁰Co, 2000 for ¹³⁷Cs, 3050 for ²²Na, and 3750 for ¹³³Ba. The performance of our model was verified using the simulated spectra measured by a PVT detector. Although our model was trained using simulation data only, it successfully reconstructed Compton edges even in measured gamma spectra with poor counting statistics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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11 pages, 3124 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Uncertainty Estimation of the Dose Rate in Real-Time Applications Using Gaussian Process Regression

by Jinhwan Kim, Kyung Taek Lim, Kyeongjin Park, Yewon Kim and Gyuseong Cho

Sensors 2020, 20(10), 2884; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20102884 - 19 May 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3125

Abstract

Major standard organizations have addressed the issue of reporting uncertainties in dose rate estimations. There are, however, challenges in estimating uncertainties when the radiation environment is considered, especially in real-time dosimetry. This study reports on the implementation of Gaussian process regression based on a spectrum-to-dose conversion operator (i.e., G(E) function), the aim of which is to deal with uncertainty in dose rate estimation based on various irradiation geometries. Results show that the proposed approach provides the dose rate estimation as a probability distribution in a single measurement, thereby increasing its real-time applications. In particular, under various irradiation geometries, the mean values of the dose rate were closer to the true values than the point estimates calculated by a G(E) function obtained from the anterior–posterior irradiation geometry that is intended to provide conservative estimates. In most cases, the 95% confidence intervals of uncertainties included those conservative estimates and the true values over the range of 50–3000 keV. The proposed method, therefore, not only conforms to the concept of operational quantities (i.e., conservative estimates) but also provides more reliable results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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14 pages, 5084 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Radioisotope Identification and Nonintrusive Depth Estimation of Localized Low-Level Radioactive Contaminants Using Bayesian Inference

by Jinhwan Kim, Kyung Taek Lim, Kilyoung Ko, Eunbie Ko and Gyuseong Cho

Sensors 2020, 20(1), 95; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20010095 - 23 Dec 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3392

Abstract

Obtaining the in-depth information of radioactive contaminants is crucial for determining the most cost-effective decommissioning strategy. The main limitations of a burial depth analysis lie in the assumptions that foreknowledge of buried radioisotopes present at the site is always available and that only a single radioisotope is present. We present an advanced depth estimation method using Bayesian inference, which does not rely on those assumptions. Thus, we identified low-level radioactive contaminants buried in a substance and then estimated their depths and activities. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, several spectra were obtained using a 3 × 3 inch hand-held NaI (Tl) detector exposed to Cs-137, Co-60, Na-22, Am-241, Eu-152, and Eu-154 sources (less than 1μCi) that were buried in a sandbox at depths of up to 15 cm. The experimental results showed that this method is capable of correctly detecting not only a single but also multiple radioisotopes that are buried in sand. Furthermore, it can provide a good approximation of the burial depth and activity of the identified sources in terms of the mean and 95% credible interval in a single measurement. Lastly, we demonstrate that the proposed technique is rarely susceptible to short acquisition time and gain-shift effects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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16 pages, 6576 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Bayesian Approach for Remote Depth Estimation of Buried Low-Level Radioactive Waste with a NaI(Tl) Detector

by Jinhwan Kim, Kyung Taek Lim, Kyeongjin Park and Gyuseong Cho

Sensors 2019, 19(24), 5365; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19245365 - 05 Dec 2019

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3064

Abstract

This study reports on the implementation of Bayesian inference to improve the estimation of remote-depth profiling for low-level radioactive contaminants with a low-resolution NaI(Tl) detector. In particular, we demonstrate that this approach offers results that are more reliable because it provides a mean value with a 95% credible interval by determining the probability distributions of the burial depth and activity of a radioisotope in a single measurement. To evaluate the proposed method, the simulation was compared with experimental measurements. The simulation showed that the proposed method was able to detect the depth of a Cs-137 point source buried below 60 cm in sand, with a 95% credible interval. The experiment also showed that the maximum detectable depths for weakly active 0.94-μCi Cs-137 and 0.69-μCi Co-60 sources buried in sand was 21 cm, providing an improved performance compared to existing methods. In addition, the maximum detectable depths hardly degraded, even with a reduced acquisition time of less than 60 s or with gain-shift effects; therefore, the proposed method is appropriate for the accurate and rapid non-intrusive localization of buried low-level radioactive contaminants during in situ measurement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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11 pages, 3937 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Low Voltage High-Energy α-Particle Detectors by GaN-on-GaN Schottky Diodes with Record-High Charge Collection Efficiency

by Abhinay Sandupatla, Subramaniam Arulkumaran, Kumud Ranjan, Geok Ing Ng, Peter P. Murmu, John Kennedy, Shugo Nitta, Yoshio Honda, Manato Deki and Hiroshi Amano

Sensors 2019, 19(23), 5107; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19235107 - 21 Nov 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3515

Abstract

A low voltage (−20 V) operating high-energy (5.48 MeV) α-particle detector with a high charge collection efficiency (CCE) of approximately 65% was observed from the compensated (7.7 × 10¹⁴ /cm³) metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) grown 15 µm thick drift layer gallium nitride (GaN) Schottky diodes on free-standing n+-GaN substrate. The observed CCE was 30% higher than the bulk GaN (400 µm)-based Schottky barrier diodes (SBD) at −20 V. This is the first report of α–particle detection at 5.48 MeV with a high CCE at −20 V operation. In addition, the detectors also exhibited a three-times smaller variation in CCE (0.12 %/V) with a change in bias conditions from −120 V to −20 V. The dramatic reduction in CCE variation with voltage and improved CCE was a result of the reduced charge carrier density (CCD) due to the compensation by Mg in the grown drift layer (DL), which resulted in the increased depletion width (DW) of the fabricated GaN SBDs. The SBDs also reached a CCE of approximately 96.7% at −300 V. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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10 pages, 7552 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Commercial Off-The-Shelf MAPS on γ-Ray Ionizing Radiation Response to Different Integration Times and Gains

by Shoulong Xu, Jaap Velthuis, Qifan Wu, Yongchao Han, Kuicheng Lin, Lana Beck, Shuliang Zou, Yantao Qu and Zengyan Li

Sensors 2019, 19(22), 4950; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19224950 - 13 Nov 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2441

Abstract

We report the γ-ray ionizing radiation response of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) monolithic active-pixel sensors (MAPS) with different integration times and gains. The distribution of the eight-bit two-dimensional matrix of MAPS output frame images was studied for different parameter settings and dose rates. We present the first results of the effects of these parameters on the response of the sensor and establish a linear relationship between the average response signal and radiation dose rate in the high-dose rate range. The results show that the distribution curves can be separated into three ranges. The first range is from 0 to 24, which generates the first significant low signal peak. The second range is from 25 to 250, which shows a smooth gradient change with different integration times, gains, and dose rates. The third range is from 251 to 255, where a final peak appears, which has a relationship with integral time, gain, and dose rate. The mean pixel value shows a linear dependence on the radiation dose rate, albeit with different calibration constants depending on the integration time and gain. Hence, MAPS can be used as a radiation monitoring device with good precision. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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12 pages, 2667 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Using a Scintillation Detector to Detect Partial Discharges

by Łukasz Nagi, Michał Kozioł, Michał Kunicki and Daria Wotzka

Sensors 2019, 19(22), 4936; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19224936 - 13 Nov 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2574

Abstract

This article presents the possibility of using a scintillation detector to detect partial discharges (PD) and presents the results of multi-variant studies of high-energy ionizing generated by PD in air. Based on the achieved results, it was stated that despite a high sensitivity of the applied detector, the accompanying electromagnetic radiation from the visible light, UV, and high-energy ionizing radiation can be recorded by both spectroscopes and a system commonly used to detect radiation. It is also important that the scintillation detector identifies a specific location where dangerous electrical discharges and where the E-M radiation energy that accompanies PD are generated. This provides a quick and non-invasive way to detect damage in insulation at an early stage when it is not visible from the outside. In places where different radiation detectors are often used due to safety regulations, such as power plants or nuclear laboratories, it is also possible to use a scintillation detector to identify that the recorded radiation comes from damaged insulation and is not the result of a failure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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14 pages, 3053 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Compact Viscometer Prototype for Remote In Situ Analysis of Sludge

by Tomas Fried, David Cheneler, Stephen D. Monk, C. James Taylor and Jonathan M. Dodds

Sensors 2019, 19(15), 3299; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19153299 - 26 Jul 2019

Viewed by 3142

Abstract

On the Sellafield site there are several legacy storage tanks and silos containing sludge of uncertain properties. While there are efforts to determine the chemical and radiological properties of the sludge, to clean out and decommission these vessels, the physical properties need to be ascertained as well. Shear behaviour, density and temperature are the key parameters to be understood before decommissioning activities commence. However, limited access, the congested nature of the tanks and presence of radioactive, hazardous substances severely limit sampling and usage of sophisticated characterisation devices within these tanks and therefore, these properties remain uncertain. This paper describes the development of a cheap, compact, and robust device to analyse the rheological properties of sludge, without the need to extract materials from the site in order to be analysed. Analysis of a sludge test material has been performed to create a suitable benchmark material for the rheological measurements with the prototype. Development of the device is being undertaken with commercial off the shelf (COTS) components and modern rapid prototyping techniques. Using these techniques, an initial prototype for measuring shear parameters of sludge has been developed, using a micro-controller for remote control and data gathering. The device is also compact enough to fit through a 75 mm opening, maximising deployment capabilities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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13 pages, 525 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integration of Ground- Penetrating Radar and Gamma-Ray Detectors for Nonintrusive Characterisation of Buried Radioactive Objects

by Ikechukwu K. Ukaegbu, Kelum A. A. Gamage and Michael D. Aspinall

Sensors 2019, 19(12), 2743; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19122743 - 18 Jun 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4135

Abstract

The characterisation of buried radioactive wastes is challenging because they are not readily accessible. Therefore, this study reports on the development of a method for integrating ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and gamma-ray detector measurements for nonintrusive characterisation of buried radioactive objects. The method makes use of the density relationship between soil permittivity models and the flux measured by gamma ray detectors to estimate the soil density, depth and radius of a disk-shaped buried radioactive object simultaneously. The method was validated using numerical simulations with experimentally-validated gamma-ray detector and GPR antenna models. The results showed that the method can simultaneously retrieve the soil density, depth and radius of disk-shaped radioactive objects buried in soil of varying conditions with a relative error of less than 10%. This result will enable the development of an integrated GPR and gamma ray detector tool for rapid characterisation of buried radioactive objects encountered during monitoring and decontamination of nuclear sites and facilities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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Review

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25 pages, 1718 KiB

Open AccessReview

Passive Gamma-Ray and Neutron Imaging Systems for National Security and Nuclear Non-Proliferation in Controlled and Uncontrolled Detection Areas: Review of Past and Current Status

by Hajir Al Hamrashdi, Stephen D. Monk and David Cheneler

Sensors 2019, 19(11), 2638; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19112638 - 11 Jun 2019

Cited by 38 | Viewed by 7598

Abstract

Global concern for the illicit transportation and trafficking of nuclear materials and other radioactive sources is on the rise, with efficient and rapid security and non-proliferation technologies in more demand than ever. Many factors contribute to this issue, including the increasing number of terrorist cells, gaps in security networks, politically unstable states across the globe and the black-market trading of radioactive sources to unknown parties. The use of passive gamma-ray and neutron detection and imaging technologies in security-sensitive areas and ports has had more impact than most other techniques in detecting and deterring illicit transportation and trafficking of illegal radioactive materials. This work reviews and critically evaluates these techniques as currently utilised within national security and non-proliferation applications and proposes likely avenues of development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Sensing: Design and Deployment of Sensors and Detectors)

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