A compact ultra-clean system for deploying radioactive sources inside the KamLAND detector
Abstract
We describe a compact, ultra-clean device used to deploy radioactive sources along the vertical axis of the KamLAND liquid-scintillator neutrino detector for purposes of calibration. The device worked by paying out and reeling in precise lengths of a hanging, small-gauge wire rope (cable); an assortment of interchangeable radioactive sources could be attached to a weight at the end of the cable. All components exposed to the radiopure liquid scintillator were made of chemically compatible UHV-cleaned materials, primarily stainless steel, in order to avoid contaminating or degrading the scintillator. To prevent radon intrusion, the apparatus was enclosed in a hermetically sealed housing inside a glove box, and both volumes were regularly flushed with purified nitrogen gas. An infrared camera attached to the side of the housing permitted real-time visual monitoring of the cable's motion, and the system was controlled via a graphical user interface.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1407.0413,
title = {A compact ultra-clean system for deploying radioactive sources inside the KamLAND detector},
author = {T. I. Banks and S. J. Freedman and J. Wallig and N. Ybarrolaza and A. Gando and Y. Gando and H. Ikeda and K. Inoue and Y. Kishimoto and M. Koga and T. Mitsui and K. Nakamura and I. Shimizu and J. Shirai and A. Suzuki and Y. Takemoto and K. Tamae and K. Ueshima and H. Watanabe and B. D. Xu and H. Yoshida and S. Yoshida and A. Kozlov and C. Grant and G. Keefer and A. Piepke and T. Bloxham and B. K. Fujikawa and K. Han and K. Ichimura and H. Murayama and T. O'Donnell and H. M. Steiner and L. A. Winslow and D. A. Dwyer and R. D. McKeown and C. Zhang and B. E. Berger and C. E. Lane and J. Maricic and T. Miletic and M. Batygov and J. G. Learned and S. Matsuno and M. Sakai and G. A. Horton-Smith and K. E. Downum and G. Gratta and Y. Efremenko and O. Perevozchikov and H. J. Karwowski and D. M. Markoff and W. Tornow and K. M. Heeger and J. A. Detwiler and S. Enomoto and M. P. Decowski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.0413},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Revised author affiliations, corrected typos, made minor improvements to text, and revised references