American Nuclear Society
Home

Home / Publications / Journals / Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 67 / Number 2

Comparative Testing of Various Flow-Cell Detectors Fabricated using CaF2 Solid Scintillator

T. Kawano, H. Ohashi, Y. Hamada, E. Jamsranjav

Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 67 / Number 2 / March 2015 / Pages 404-407

Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T39

First Online Publication:January 19, 2015
Updated:February 27, 2015

A monitoring system based on a flow-cell detector was developed for measuring the tritium concentration in water. The flow-cell detector was fabricated using a granular CaF2 solid scintillator. This system does not use a liquid scintillation cocktail and does not generate radioactive organic liquid waste. Moreover, continuous real-time measurements are possible, in contrast to a liquid scintillation counting system, which requires batch measurements. For further development of the system, four flow-cell detectors were fabricated. They included a single 3-mm-diameter cell, three 3-mm-diameter cells in series, a single 5-mm-diameter cell, and three 5-mm-diameter cells in series. Continuously flowing water containing tritium at various concentrations was passed through the flow cells, and tritium count were measured for 600 and 10000 s. Investigating the relation between the count rate and concentration, the three 5-mm-diameter cells were most sensitive, with a linear relation maintained down to approximately 2 Bq/mL and 10 Bq/mL for 10000- and 600-s measurements, respectively.