Nuclear Industry Applications of Si-Diode Based High Gamma Dose Rate Detectors

AECL has developed and deployed several high gamma radiation field measurement and profiling systems based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) silicon diode sensors and components. These systems have been useful in a number of applications including radiation survey of a medical radioisotope production hot-cell, liquid level measurement in a highly radioactive tank, identification of waste location inside nuclear waste storage structures, imaging of reactivity devices inside a shut-down nuclear reactor, and for scanning and imaging highly radioactive reactor components inside a hot-cell in support of an industrial surveillance project. The measurements ranged from 100 uGy/h (10 mRad/h) to 10 kGy/h (1MRad/h), which covers typical radiation fields in hazardous nuclear facilities. This paper summarizes the development and characterization of the Si-diode based detector system, and describes its performance in a variety of applications.