DETERMINATION OF THE URANIUM CONTENT IN SOME SOIL SAMPLES FROM AJAOKUTA, KOGI STATE: NIGERIA

This work present the Uranium (238U) content in soil samples collected in Ajaokuta from some villages was been determined. The measurement of the soil Uranium activity concentration were made using a multi–channel pulse height analyzer (Camberra series 10 plus) coupled to a 76.2mm x 76.2mm NaI (TI) scintillation detector. 2.93)The mean Uranium content in the analyzed samples was found to be (44.26 Bq/kg which is higher than the world mean value of 35Bq/kg. The results were in good agreement with others for soils from region which is considered as normal or slightly high in radioactivity level.

MULTICHANNEL PULSE HEIGHT ANALYSER USING FPGA FOR DATA ACQUISITION

This document gives the description of a multichannel pulse height analyser which is implemented using FPGA technology for high speed data acquisition and analysis. Multichannel analysers (MCA) are used globally in various laboratories in the application of nuclear spectroscopy. The most common use of a MCA is to plot the energy spectrum or to find the decay rate of the radio material under test. In the following context we have described the designing of an open source multichannel pulse height analyzer which uses a high speed ADC for data acquisition and displays the output on a graphical user interface designed using labVIEW in a computer.

Analysis on the Impact of the Data Acquisition Board on the Performance Indicators of the Virtual Multi-Channel Pulse Height Analyzer

The DAB (Data Acquisition Board) is a key component of the VMPHA (Virtual Multi-channel Pulse Height Analyzer). In order to assist the design of the VMPHA, the influence of the DAB on the performances of the VMPHA has been studied through the method of theoretical analysis in this paper. The Sampling Rate, the LSB (Least Significant Bit) and the Data Transfer Rate of the DAB have decisive effects on the performance of the VMPHA. The Sampling Rate and the LSB are the two main factors that determine the energy resolution which is one of the most important performance indicators for the VMPHA. Another most important performance indicator for the VMPHA, the number of channels, is determined by the LSB alone. Moreover, the relationship among the three key performance parameters of the DAB is mutual influence. At the end of the paper, the selection method of the DAB for developing a VMPHA is summarized and presented.