Speaker
Description
Xenon International has recently tested a new quality control (QC) source for the nuclear detectors which uses an acrylic housing for a $^{137}$Cs source. The original source holder used in acceptance testing was $^{137}$Cs housed in a stainless-steel pellet. The high Z of the stainless steel attenuated low energy X-rays. The new QC source allows for the lower energy (~30 keV) emissions from $^{137}$Cs to be observed on the NaI detector. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has leveraged this new source to both monitor the gain and performance of the nuclear detectors. The gain of the nuclear detector uses the $^{137}$Cs 662-keV emission peak for both the gamma and beta detector. This work focuses on the rotated frame of reference method to monitor the beta detector gain. Over several months, targeted testing was conducted to assess metrics (count rate, dead time, resolutions) derived from the QC measurements. This works describes the testing, measurements, and algorithms used for gain and performance monitoring with a QC source.
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