Radiant energy – Fluent material containment – support or transfer means – With irradiating source or radiating fluent material
Patent
1991-02-27
1992-05-26
Fields, Carolyn E.
Radiant energy
Fluent material containment, support or transfer means
With irradiating source or radiating fluent material
25037001, 250394, G01T 1167
Patent
active
051171155
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The instant invention relates to a device for measuring the activity and volume of radioactive liquids. It relates in particular to the investigation of radioactive liquids decanted into decanting devices or similar installations in a plurality of individual containers, e.g. for the elution of technetium, whereby the measuring device constitutes an integral part of these installations.
To be able to measure the activity of the liquids to be decanted in such installations in a plurality of containers it was necessary in the past to take a measured portion of the liquid from the individual containers and to examine it separately in an ionization chamber, whereby relatively high voltages (600 V) are used and whereby the system tends to fatigue very rapidly when high activities are measured. Direct measuring of the activity of the liquid to be decanted into the containers, i.e. a direct counting of the counts per volume unit has not been possible with the known installation.
The instant invention has as its objects to create a measuring device making it possible to measure directly the radioactivity and at the same time the volume of radioactive liquids to be decanted into individual containers. The measuring device according to the instant invention is characterized by a combination of the characteristics that it is provided with a shielding housing and with a first chamber containing a vessel provided with a central hollow chamber and a ring chamber receiving the electrically conductive liquid to be examined, said ring chamber being provided with an inlet and an outlet for the liquid, and with a second chamber which is separated from the first chamber by a wall with a vertical row of windows placed one above the other and in which a second housing is provided adjoining to these windows, said second chamber serving for optical and electrical shielding and being provided with a vertical row of sensors, in particular semiconductor crystals, assigned to the row of windows within said housing, each of which is connected to an amplifier and to a counting device, whereby two separate rod-shaped electrodes dip into the vessel placed in the first chamber, one of said electrodes dipping into the ring chamber and being subjected to high-frequency impulses while the other electrode extends into the central hollow chamber of the container and is connected via an amplifier to a measuring device.
This design makes it possible to measure directly the radioactivity (counts per volume unit) of the liquid which may for example be fed from a technetium generator into the vessel and then from same into a receiving container, because the sum of the sensor signals is a measure for the overall radiation, whereby the volume of the liquid in the container can be ascertained at the same time. These measuring results are obtained without having to transfer part of the liquid and without a tendency of the measuring system to show signs of fatigue.
The second housing used for optical and electrical shielding is preferably made of aluminum.
In a variant of the embodiment serving to technologically measure technetium impurities an additional vertical row of windows is provided in the separation wall of the first shielding housing, with a row of silicon crystals in the second shielding housing being assigned to said row of windows and being shielding against the windows by an additional shielding film against technetium radiation, said film serving to receive radiation coming from technetium impurities, in particular from molybdenum.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 depicts a cross-sectional view of a measuring device according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 depicts a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a device for measuring the impurities of technetium.
The invention is explained in greater detail below with reference to the drawing in which a device according to the invention is shown in schematic section.
The measuring device shown in FIG. 1, is provided with a housing 1 made of lead with a vertical first chamber 2 in
REFERENCES:
patent: 4197456 (1980-04-01), Fleischer et al.
patent: 4658142 (1987-04-01), Johnson et al.
Bender & Co., Gesellschaft m.b.H.
Fields Carolyn E.
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