Natural radionuclides as background sources in the Modane underground laboratory
Language
en
Article de revue
This item was published in
J.Environ.Radioact. 2020, vol. 216, p. 106185
English Abstract
The Modane underground laboratory (LSM) is the deepest operating underground laboratory in Europe. It is located under the Fréjus peak in Savoie Alps in France, with average overburden of 4800 m w. e. (water equivalent), ...Read more >
The Modane underground laboratory (LSM) is the deepest operating underground laboratory in Europe. It is located under the Fréjus peak in Savoie Alps in France, with average overburden of 4800 m w. e. (water equivalent), providing low-background environment for experiments in nuclear and particle physics, astrophysics and environmental physics. It is crucial to understand individual sources of background such as residual cosmic-ray flux of high-energy muons, muon-induced neutrons and contributions from radionuclides present in the environment. The identified dominant sources of background are radioactive contamination of construction materials of detectors and laboratory walls, radon contamination of the laboratory air, and neutrons produced in the laboratory. The largest neutron contribution has been identified from (α, n) reactions in low Z materials (10−7-10−4 n s−1 Bq−1) and from spontaneous fission of 238U ( 10−6 n s−1 Bq−1).Read less <
English Keywords
Background sources
Neutron sources
Modane underground laboratory
Gamma-ray sources
Origin
Hal imported