Nuclear Radiation-Induced Atmospheric Air Breakdown in a Spark Gap

Author

Liao, Shaolin ; Gopalsami, Nachappa ; Koehl, Eugene R. ; Elmer, Thomas W., II ; Heifetz, Alexander ; Chien, Hual-Te ; Raptis, Apostolos C.

Author_Institution

Nucl. Eng. Div., Argonne Nat. Lab., Argonne, IL, USA

Volume

40

Issue

4

fYear

2012

fDate

4/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

990

Lastpage

994

Abstract

We have investigated the effect of pre-ionization by a radioactive -ray source on the atmospheric air breakdown conditions in a high-voltage spark gap. A standoff millimeter-wave (mmW) system was used to monitor the breakdown properties. A decrease in breakdown threshold was observed with an increase of radiation dose. We attribute this to a space charge-controlled electron diffusion process in a cloud of radiation-induced ion species of both polarities. The space charge-dependent diffusion coefficient was determined from the measurement data. In addition, we found that the breakdown process shows random spikes with Poisson-like statistical feature. These findings portend the feasibility of remote detection of nuclear radiation using high-power mmWs.

Keywords

Poisson equation; plasma transport processes; plasma-beam interactions; radioactive sources; space charge; spark gaps; ¹³⁷Cs; Poisson-like statistical feature; breakdown threshold; high-voltage spark gap; nuclear radiation-induced atmospheric air breakdown; preionization; radiation-induced ion species; radioactive γ-ray source; radioactive-ray source; space charge-controlled electron diffusion coefficient process; standoff millimeter-wave system; Educational institutions; Masers; Physics; Sensors; Sparks; Air breakdown; breakdown voltage; millimeter wave (mmW); nuclear radiation; spark gap;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2012.2187343

Filename

6163411