GammaRayX 2021

GammaRayX Anniversary Seminar - Postponed

Due to the COVID-19 situation the organizers of the seminar have decided to postpone the seminar to 2021. The exact timing of the future seminar is still open and most probably we decide it in the beginning of 2021.

Since the GammaRayX seminar has been postponed to year 2021 the deadline for reporting the results of the sample intercomparison is extended to 15 January 2021.

Welcome to the GammaRayX Anniversary Seminar page of the GammaWiki web. Here you will find information on the upcoming GammaRayX Anniversary Seminar on gamma spectrometry that will be held at STUK, Helsinki 8-10 September 2020.

The GammaRayX activity involves an anniversary seminar covering various aspects of gamma-ray spectrometry and intercomparison exercises. The Roman numeral X in the acronym refers to the tenth event in the series of famous gamma-ray spectrometry seminars. The scope of the seminar will be broad allowing a range of topics to be considered. For example, following areas could be included (but are not limited to these):

Laboratory, in-situ and field measurements

Whole body measurements

Uncertainty calculations

Efficiency determination

Spectrum analysis and data management

Monte Carlo simulations

Nuclear forensics

Novel/new approaches

The intercomparison exercises cover analyses of samples distributed to participants and measured in their laboratories and analyses of exercise gamma spectra distributed to participants.

International experts will be invited to the seminar to give presentations on different aspects and new developments in gamma-ray spectrometry. Participants are encouraged to give presentations on subjects of their choice, describing their applications of gamma-ray spectrometry and possible challenges encountered, new developments in detectors, electronics and data analysis. We strongly invite seminar attendees to give “spontaneous” short presentations (5-10 min) on their work. These short presentations will give us better opportunities to get to know each other during the seminar. Participation of students and young scientists is highly welcome.

The maximum number of seminar participants is limited to 70.

Overview and background

This work is supported by the Nordic Nuclear Safety Research (NKS). GammaWiki is a resource webpage for Nordic users of gamma spectrometry. GammaWiki is a product of the NKS GammaSpec 2016 activity, which is an independent continuation of the GammaUser (2014), GammaTest (2013), GammaWorkshop (2011-2012), and GammaSem (2009) activities.

A page with links to individual information pages for previous workshops can be accessed here.

Time and place

The GammaRayX workshop will be held in Helsinki, Finland at a date in 2021 that will be announced as soon as possible.

The venue for the workshop is STUK.

Registration

The registration form for workshop participants is available here. Please fill in and send it by e-mail to the address mentioned in the form. Deadline for the registration will be announced later, but we would appreciate if you express your intention to participate as soon as possible.

General travel information

Travel from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport to the main Railway station of Helsinki:

The easiest way to go to the main railway station is by train (https://www.vr.fi/cs/vr/en/keharata_en?cmp=etusivun%20alabannerit&itm=Read%C2%A0more). Note that all trains, i.e. not depending on the direction, departing the airport will go to the main railway station. The travel time is around 30 min not very much depending on the direction. The price of the one-way ticket (Zones ABC) is around 5 €.

Travel from the hotels to STUK:

Usually the most convenient way is to use underground with the destination of Siilitie Metro station and have a short walk (https://www.stuk.fi/web/en/about-us/how-to-reach-us). The distance from Siilitie station to STUK is around 800 m. The Helsinki underground network is probably the simplest in the world!

Accommodation

There are lot of hotels nearby the main railway station of Helsinki and please feel free to reserve rooms from these. However, rooms in the Hotel Arthur (https://www.hotelarthur.fi/en/) are reserved for the GammaRay X seminar with a special price of 115 – 140 €, see the registration form. This special price is available for the reservations done at least one month before the seminar. You can do the reservation by sending an e-mail to the reception (reception@hotelarthur.fi) and giving the reservation code of “GammaRay X”. Number of available rooms for the special prices are limited.

Arthur is located around 300 m from the railway station and the distance to the nearest underground station, Helsingin yliopisto, is only 50 m, see letter M in the map.

Intercomparison samples

Samples for the intercomparison are air filters “salted” with a set of radionuclides. The diameter of the active area of the filters is 77 mm, see figure. Radionuclides present in the filters should be identified and their activities determined. Results of the intercomparison will be considered in the seminar.

The number of samples is limited, which means that same samples will be measured in 2 – 4 laboratories. Please contact Roy Pöllänen (roy.pollanen@stuk.fi) should you need additional information. As mentioned in the registration form, the deadline for announcing participation of the intercomparison is 29th of May.

Please note that your results from the measurements and analyses of the samples must be reported to Henrik Ramebäck (henrik.ramebeck@foi.se) no later than 28 August 2020.

Exercise spectra

Two exercise spectra will be provided in a number of standard formats (.cnf, .chn, .n42 and .spc). The spectra will be provided as compressed .zip files. Each .zip file containing the exercise spectrum in a number of formats, information as to the spectrum (channel numbers, geometry description, detector description, calibration information, etc).

Participants should attempt to identify the material present based on identified isotopes and attempt to determine any relevant information as to the material based on the gamma spectrum.

The exercise spectra may be obtained by contacting Mark Dowdall (mark.dowdall@dsa.no).

Seminar agenda

The workshop agenda will be found here once complete.

Get-together

When most of you have arrived and settled in, we kindly offer you a casual get-together event where we have a chance to meet and have some drinks and snacks. The event will be held in STUK.

We sincerely hope to see you all there.

Seminar cost

No seminar fee will be charged.

The Organizers

• Roy Pöllänen (STUK)
• Henrik Ramebäck (FOI)
• Sven Nielsen (DTU)
• Anna Rand (IFE)
• Thomas Bandur Aleksandersen (IFE)
• Kjartan Guðnason (IRSA)