Improving the sensitivity and reliability of radionuclide measurements at remote international monitoring stations

Abstract

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is supported by a global network of monitoring stations that perform high-resolution gamma-spectrometry on air filter samples. The UK CTBT Radionuclide Laboratory has utilised cosmic veto systems to improve the sensitivity of measurements since 2010. During this study, a second detector system (with a cosmic veto) was deployed at the CTBT IMS station RN67, alongside the standard detector. This is an incredibly remote IMS station on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic. A duplicate system was also tested at AWE to benchmark the remote systems performance.The cosmic veto system improved detection sensitivities by up to 10% across a range of radionuclides. As a system to re-measure samples 7 days after the primary measurement, detection sensitivities were improved by an order of magnitude, allowing a potentially crucial confirmation of signatures when timely transport to a laboratory is not feasible.Utilising the second detector in coincidence with the primary detector system (which would require reengineering of the shield), sensitivity improvements of up to two orders of magnitude can be achieved. These improvements are maintained even when the measurement takes place without any decay, potentially allowing a highly sensitive treaty measurement within 2 h of the end of collection.