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Fusion Science and Technology
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Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
Baojun Liu, Diego Alvarez-Ossa, Nazir P. Kherani, Stefan Zukotynski, Kevin P. Chen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 2 | August 2008 | Pages 631-634
Technical Paper | Process Applications | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1894
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A smoke and particle ionization detector using tritiated amorphous silicon film as the radiation source is demonstrated. The ion chamber design includes both bipolar and unipolar region; the unipolar region is defined as the volume space extending beyond the range of ionizing particles. Attachment of ions to particulate matter in the unipolar region considerably reduces the mobility of the carriers, thus forming a space charge cloud accompanied by a reduction in the electrical field strength, thereby enhancing the particulate detection responsivity. Tritium s have a maximum range of about 6 mm in air, which makes the detector compact. Owing to the potential of increased specific activity, it results in a gamma-free detector with improved sensitivity. The results show that this gamma-free detector is several-fold to forty-fold more responsive than traditional ionization detectors using Am-241. In addition, this ion chamber can function as a dual detector having both photoelectric and ionization detector responsivities.
