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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
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Deep geologic repository progress—2025 Update
Editor's note: This article has was originally published in November 2023. It has been updated with new information as of June 2025.
Outside my office, there is a display case filled with rock samples from all over the world. It contains a disk of translucent, orange salt from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.; a core of white-and-bronze gneiss from the site of the future deep geologic repository in Eurajoki, Finland; several angular chunks of fine-grained, gray claystone from the underground research laboratory at Bure, France; and a piece of coarse-grained granite from the underground research tunnel in Daejeon, South Korea.
W.J. McGann, G. Entine, R.F. Farrell, A. Clapp, M.R. Squillante
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 1041-1046
Measurement of Tritium | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25275
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Low noise silicon avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with ultra thin surface dead layers have been developed for detecting tritium beta particles. Unlike the present windowless proportional counters and liquid scintillation techniques this alternative requires no liquid or flowing gases and has the reliability and compactness of solid-state detector technology. We have carried out detector research to study and optimize the physical and electrical properties of APDs for nuclear spectroscopy. A particular emphasis has been placed on reducing the noise and surface dead layer of large area avalanche photodiodes (1 cm diameter) in order to maximize the quantum efficiency for detecting low energy betas, as well as to investigate the effects of changing temperature, bias, and leakage current on avalanche gain, signal-to-noise and tritium detection quantum efficiency.