Instrumentation Reference Book, 4th Edition

Chapter 29. Nuclear Instrumentation Technology

D. Aliaga Kelly and W. Boyes

29.1. Introduction

Nuclear gauging instruments can be classified as those that measure the various radiations or particles emitted by radioactive substances or nuclear accelerators, such as alpha particles, beta particles, electrons and positrons, gamma- and X-rays, neutrons, and heavy particles such as protons and deuterons. A variety of other exotic particles also exist, such as neutrinos, mesons, muons, and the like, but their study is limited to high-energy research laboratories and uses special detection systems; they will not be considered in this book.

An important factor in the measurements to be made is the energy of the particles or radiations. This is expressed ...