MTV New Scintillators course travels to ORNL for practicum

The U-M NERS 590 class participated in an amazing one-week practicum at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)! This MTV New Scintillators course introduces students to the physics and chemistry of organic scintillators as well as the techniques for making and characterizing them for instruments in radiation detection.

During the ORNL workshop the 10 students formulated and cast their own organic scintillator samples. With the guidance of Dr. Febbraro and other researchers at ORNL, students learned about plastic scintillator fabrication and applied this knowledge in the lab to create their own. Students used thermal curing, photocuring, and even 3-D printing, which included various secondary additives to adjust their performance.

These samples will be brought back to U-M where students will then couple them to photomultiplier tubes in the laboratory. The class will design characterization experiments with several radiation sources.

The class also met with various researchers at ORNL to discuss applications of plastic scintillators, such as neutron radiography (led by Dr. Paul Hausladen). These discussions also included non-proliferation (led by Dr. Robert Bean), and the quantization of risks associated with different reactor designs (led by Dr. Sunil Chirayath). This experience included several tours of ORNL facilities such as the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) which enable key discoveries in many fields of study.

The NERS 590 students are enriched by the experience, and we look forward to continued collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory! Special thanks to Dr. Febbraro and Dr. Ben Thomas for all their help in making this practicum a success!