Feasibility study of one-dimensional imaging with an optical fiber for radiation dose-rate monitoring system in the decommissioning process

Abstract

Real-time dose-rate monitoring system under the high dose-rate situation is required for the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plants to remove the debris remaining inside the plants. We have proposed a dose-rate monitor consisting of a scintillator, over 100-m long optical fiber and CCD spectrometer. Some noises with a dominant emission wavelength of below 550 nm originating from the optical fiber itself must be separated from the signal from the scintillator, and the signal region has been defined as 650–1000 nm to use significant data, up to now. In this paper, we investigated if the noise region defined as below 550 nm can be supporting data for the monitoring system, because such noises are expected to include position information through the fiber. In the emission spectrum, the intensities of the noise emission or absorption band are expected to depend on the position of the fiber, and we demonstrated such dependence, “one-dimensional dose-rate distribution”, with 20 m-long optical fiber and CCD spectrometer. Optical fiber was placed around a 60Co source with an activity of approximately 60 TBq, and emission spectra of the fiber were acquired with different dose-rate conditions from 10 to 700 Gy/h. The noise intensities were well fitted with the power function as a function of the product of fiber length and dose rate, and we found that fiber noise has rate information in one-dimensional imaging.