Development of scintillator plates with high energy resolution for alpha particles made of GPS scintillator grains

A scintillator plate with high energy resolution was developed to produce an alpha particle monitor used in nuclear fuel reprocessing plants and mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) fuel plants. Grains of a Gd2Si2O7 (GPS) scintillator of several 10 to 550 μm were fixed on a glass substrate and were then mechanically polished. By increasing the size of scintillator grains and removing fine powders, the collected light yield and energy resolution for alpha particles were drastically improved. Energy resolution of 9.3% was achieved using average grain size of 91 μm. Furthermore, the ratios between counts in a peak and total counts were improved by more than 60% by the further increase of grain size and adoption of mechanically polished surfaces on both sides. Beta and gamma ray influences were suppressed sufficiently by the thin 100 μm scintillator plates.