Radiation Detection with Plastic Scintillators
- Magazine Article
- TBMG-29026
Sector:
Language:
- English
It has been established opinion since the 1950s that organic crystals and liquid scintillators can work for detecting neutrons, but that plastics are not suitable for neutron detection. For years, plastic materials have been used in large, low-cost detectors for portals and high-energy physics facilities, and while they could detect neutrons and gamma rays, they have been incapable of distinguishing one from the other, which is key to identifying nuclear substances such as uranium and plutonium from benign radioactive sources.