[en] The paper reviews the basic properties of nuclear detectors and gives a short description of the major available detector types. It subsequently discusses Passivated Implanted Planar Silicon technology and its applications in nuclear metrology

[en] The development of passivated ion-implanted silicon detectors and of very thin alpha-particle sources improves the resolution of alpha-particle spectra and allows to separate energy pics up to now unseparate. The ²³⁹Pu/²⁴⁰Pu isotopic ratio of a mixture has been measured using the alpha spectrometry deconvolution code DEMO

[en] A radioactive source preparation method is presented, with the prospect of dissolved actinide analysis, the source being composed of a conductive substrate that bears a coating with incorporated radioactive elements. The process involves the following stages: electro-deposit of a thin film of ion exchanger conductive polymer on the conductive substrate (glass for example), and introduction of the radioactive elements through ion exchange. 4 refs., 1 fig

[en] Using the planar process, it is possible to manufacture silicon detectors of extremely low reverse currents and very precise shape definitions. This new technique allows the use of different kinds of structures to obtain optimal results in high energy physics. (orig.)

[en] The concentrator includes a processing tank feeded at the base by the effluent to concentrate with a constant level device, the tank is surrounded by vertical pipes heated by electricity and connected to the processing tank at the bottom and for the upper part at the top but tangentially. Over the tank is a condenser for the recovery of the vapor phase. It is specially designed for effluents containing gases and foams

No abstract available

[en] Silicon detectors exhibiting reverse currents of less than 1 nA cm^-2/100 μm at 20⁰C have been manufactured in a reproducible way using photoengraving and ion-implantation techniques. For use as X-ray detectors only aluminium and epoxies are used for the mount in order to avoid any parasitic fluorescence. Typical energy resolution at 20⁰C is 1.3 keV at 10-20 keV for 10 mm2 active area detectors. The main contribution to the performance is the temperature stability. Applications developed are: a system for X-ray fluorescence analysis of metal ores and a prototype for environmental monitoring using 16 multiplexed Si detectors with an overall resolution of 1.8 keV in the 10-20 KeV region for the total 400 mm2 area

[en] Canberra semiconductor produces germanium and silicon solid state detectors for nuclear radiation. Its business domain covers the production of standard detectors on an industrial basis, for industrial and applied physics applications, as well as the development of special detectors and electronics, tailored to the needs of a particular application, in science and research. There exists an important and beneficial interaction between these two activities. (orig.)

[en] Various anthropogenic sources contribute to the inventory of long live β-emitters in the environment. Studies have been carried out to obtain the ⁹⁰Sr distribution in environment in order to estimate its impact in terms of radiation exposure to humans. The Laboratory routinely measures ⁹⁰Sr by proportional counter after radiochemistry. An incomplete radiochemical separation leads to a deposit submitted to count polluted by natural β-emitters. In order to confirm the result, ⁹⁰Y (daughter of ⁹⁰Sr), is extracted from the final radiochemical fraction and counted. The ⁹⁰Y decreasing (T_1/2 = 2.67 days) is checked by successive counts over 64 h. The delay between the end of radiochemistry and the counting is imposed by 15 days to allow radioactive equilibrium between ⁹⁰Sr and ⁹⁰Y to be established. In order to remove this delay the purity of the ⁹⁰Sr fraction source can be verified by β-spectrometry. Thus, a β-spectrometer is under development in collaboration with Canberra Semi-Conductor and Canberra Electronic. It consists in a PIPS detector where several silicon layers are combined. Initial results will be presented in this paper

[en] Three industrial applications have been developed with silicon passivated ion-implanted detectors. The first one is based on high resolution alpha spectroscopy reached with this kind of detector at room temperature. The second one deals with large area silicon detectors for alpha monitoring and the necessary reproducibility of the process. The last one is an approach of silicon detectors used in the current mode. (orig.)