Construction and implementation of a TDCR system at ENEA

Area of Science:

• Nuclear physics
• Metrology
• Radiochemistry

Background:

• Traditional 4π liquid scintillation (LS) total-count-detection-ratio (TDCR) systems rely on complex electronics.
• Advancements in digital electronics offer potential for simplifying detector systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and test a new 4π (LS) TDCR system at ENEA-INMRI.
• To evaluate the performance of a digital pulse processing module in a TDCR setup.

Main Methods:

• Construction of a new 4π (LS) TDCR system with three photomultiplier tubes in a 120° geometry.
• Directly linking the photomultiplier tubes to a CAEN Desktop Digitizer DT5720.
• Utilizing Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology for real-time Digital Pulse Processing (DPP).

Main Results:

• The new system successfully replaced conventional TDCR electronics with a single digital module.
• Accurate activity measurements were achieved for tritium (3H) and nickel-63 (63Ni) standard sources.

Conclusions:

• The developed 4π (LS) TDCR system demonstrates a simplified and effective approach to radioactivity measurement.
• FPGA-based digital pulse processing is a viable alternative for TDCR electronics.