Alpha and Beta Contamination Detection
Industrial radioactive contamination monitors, either hand-held or installed require a large detection area to ensure efficient and rapid coverage of monitored surfaces. For this the scintillation counter with a large area scintillator window and integrated photomultiplier tube is ideally suited and finds wide application in the field of radioactive contamination monitoring of personnel and the environment. Detectors are designed to have one or two scintillation materials, depending on the application. "Single phosphor" detectors are used for either alpha or beta, and "Dual phosphor" detectors are used to detect both.
A scintillator such as zinc sulphide is used for alpha particle detection, whilst plastic scintillators are used for beta detection. The resultant scintillation energies can be discriminated so that alpha and beta counts can be measured separately with the same detector. This technique is used in both hand-held and fixed monitoring equipment, and such instruments are relatively inexpensive compared with the gas proportional detector.
Read more about this topic: Scintillation Counter
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“Imagination is a valuable asset in business and she has a sister, Understanding, who also serves. Together they make a splendid team and business problems dissolve and the impossible is accomplished by their ministrations.... Imagination concerning the world’s wants and the individual’s needs should be the Alpha and Omega of self-education.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)