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Virtual Radiation Detection Experiment Open Source Software

Radiation detection and measurement education is necessary for a wide variety of people working with radiation. The equipments and laboratory setup needed for delivering this education are expensive and difficult to assemble due to the large variety of the type of experiments that are desirable to cover.

An extendible, flexible and easy to use virtual environment is created for Radiation Detection and Measurement Laboratory education. This platform is specifically usefull when nuclear instrumentation and radioactive sources are not avaliable.
Analog Monte Carlo models are implemented for the decay of radiation sources , detectors and intervening materials such as shielding and collimators. The necessary nuclear instrumentation for experiments are also modeled both graphically and numerically to maintain a consistent and real-life feeling when performing experiments. To make the Monte Carlo simulation [1] for these detectors one needs the cross-section data to sample gamma and neutron interactions. So the cross-section data from XCOM [2] is used for gamma interacting materials, and data from ENDF [3] is used for neutron interacting materials. Beta and alpha interaction is basically implemented using stopping power data from SRIM software [4] and NIST database [5]. Gamma detectors in the software are CdZnTe, NaI(Tl)3x3, NaI(Tl)5x5, NaI(Tl)7x7, NaI(Tl)2x2, NaI(Tl)2x2 Well Type, BGO, HPGe, Geiger Muller. Neutron detectors are BF3 1x7, BF3 3x7. Beta-Pips and Alpha-Pips detectors are modeled as beta and alpha detectors respectively. The environment, in which the experiments are carried on, can be air, water or vacuum. For the environments the cross-section data from the same databases is used. Moreover one needs some shielding material to measure its properties via spectroscopy. An Aluminum shield is also modeled for this purpose. A collimator is useful which is modeled as pure lead collimator.

Project Aim:

An extendible, flexible and easy to use virtual environment is created for Radiation Detection and Measurement Laboratory education. This platform is specifically usefull when nuclear instrumentation and radioactive sources are not avaliable.
Analog Monte Carlo models are implemented for the decay of radiation sources , detectors and intervening materials such as shielding and collimators. The necessary nuclear instrumentation for experiments are also modeled both graphically and numerically to maintain a consistent and real-life feeling when performing experiments. To make the Monte Carlo simulation [1] for these detectors one needs the cross-section data to sample gamma and neutron interactions. So the cross-section data from XCOM [2] is used for gamma interacting materials, and data from ENDF [3] is used for neutron interacting materials. Beta and alpha interaction is basically implemented using stopping power data from SRIM software [4] and NIST database [5]. Gamma detectors in the software are CdZnTe, NaI(Tl)3x3, NaI(Tl)5x5, NaI(Tl)7x7, NaI(Tl)2x2, NaI(Tl)2x2 Well Type, BGO, HPGe, Geiger Muller. Neutron detectors are BF3 1x7, BF3 3x7. Beta-Pips and Alpha-Pips detectors are modeled as beta and alpha detectors respectively. The environment, in which the experiments are carried on, can be air, water or vacuum. For the environments the cross-section data from the same databases is used. Moreover one needs some shielding material to measure its properties via spectroscopy. An Aluminum shield is also modeled for this purpose. A collimator is useful which is modeled as pure lead collimator. After the preparation of the cross-section data and modeling via Monte Carlo required for these elements, the basic spectroscopy instruments are modeled. These are High Voltage Supply for the detectors, Preamplifier and Amplifier for signal handling, Multi Channel Analyzer (MCA) and Oscilloscope to visualize the signals.