Radiation Detection Instructional Laboratory

The purpose of the Radiation Detection Instructional Laboratory (RDIL) is to provide fundamental and advanced instruction on the design and use of various radiation detectors and spectrometers. Instruction includes fundamental and advanced measurements of beta particles, alpha particles, gamma rays and neutrons. Technical support is provided for graduate students at the Master's and Ph.D. levels.

Courses taught with instrumentation in the RDIL

NE 495 Elements of Nuclear Engineering (demonstration support)
NE 512
NE 620 Problems in Nuclear Engineering (demonstration support)
NE 648 Nuclear Reactor Lab
NE 761 Problems in Nuclear Engineering

Location

010 Ward Hall

Equipment

There are three complete workstations in the RDIL for radiation detector studies and radiation measurements, with each having the nuclear detection equipment necessary to perform radiation measurements with gas-filled and gas-flow detectors, scintillation detectors and semiconductor diode detectors. Students can perform gamma ray counting and spectroscopy, charged particle counting, and fast and thermal neutron counting.

Each station is outfitted with a Nuclear Instrument Module (NIM) bin and the following NIM components:

Amplifier
Counter/timer
Single channel analyzer (sca)
Dual discriminator
Pulser
Power supply
Bias supply

Additionally, each station has the following:

Gas proportional detector preamplifier
Semiconductor charge sensitive preamplifier
Multi-channel analyzer (mca)
Digital oscilloscope
2in x 2in nai(tl) detector with photomultiplier tube and preamplifier
2 pi gas-flow detector
Multi-wire gas flow detector
Geiger-mueller counter with a rate-meter

Additional equipment includes:

Several Si surface barrier detectors with a vacuum chamber
High-purity germanium detectors (hpge)
Lithium-drifted Ge detector (Ge(Li))
BF-3 gas-filled neutron detectors
Bonner sphere set with a lii scintillation detector
Coated-semiconductor neutron detectors
TLD readers
over 80 additional NIM components for an assortment of various radiation detection experiments

The RDIL is stocked with gamma ray, alpha particle and beta particle calibration check sources for laboratory use.