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.