TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of long-term low-level exposure to radiation as observed in acrylic scintillator. Cause and prevention of radiation disease in uranium calorimeters
AU - Sirois, Yves
AU - Wigmans, Richard
PY - 1985/10/15
Y1 - 1985/10/15
N2 - The acrylic scintillator which was used for several years as the active medium in the Axial Field Spectrometer uranium calorimeter at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings was found to be severely damaged. The observed light output has decreased on the average by a factor of 2, and the attenuation length by a factor of 3, causing a severe degradation of the energy resolution of the system for the detection of both electromagnetic and hadronic showers. It could be shown that the effects are due to the radiation induced by uranium decay. The fact that the integrated dose obtained from this process (50 Gy) is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than what was currently believed to be a safe level, strongly suggests that the dose rate is a dominating factor in these radiation damage problems. It could be shown that the radiation resistivity is improved by at least an order of magnitude if contact with oxygen is avoided.
AB - The acrylic scintillator which was used for several years as the active medium in the Axial Field Spectrometer uranium calorimeter at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings was found to be severely damaged. The observed light output has decreased on the average by a factor of 2, and the attenuation length by a factor of 3, causing a severe degradation of the energy resolution of the system for the detection of both electromagnetic and hadronic showers. It could be shown that the effects are due to the radiation induced by uranium decay. The fact that the integrated dose obtained from this process (50 Gy) is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than what was currently believed to be a safe level, strongly suggests that the dose rate is a dominating factor in these radiation damage problems. It could be shown that the radiation resistivity is improved by at least an order of magnitude if contact with oxygen is avoided.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0022144582&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0168-9002(85)90634-5
DO - 10.1016/0168-9002(85)90634-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0022144582
SN - 0168-9002
VL - 240
SP - 262
EP - 274
JO - Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A
JF - Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A
IS - 2
ER -