FRIDAY 15TH
9:00 to 9:15
Registration/Presentation
Lecture room
9:15 to 9:45
Fundamentals of PSm: basic principles
Lecture room
9:45 to 10:45
Fundamentals of PSm: mechanism and performances
Lecture room
10:45 to 11:15
Coffee break
Lecture room
11:15 to 11:45
Applications: highly salty samples and α/β indices
Lecture room
11:45 to 12:30
Applications: extractive Plastic Scintillation Microspheres
Lecture room
12:30 to 13:00
Applications: continuous monitoring
Lecture room
13:00 to 14:30
Lunch
Canteen
14:30 to 15:00
Practical aspects
Laboratory
15:00 to 17:30
Laboratory practice: sample preparation
Laboratory
SATURDAY 16TH
9:00 to 9:30
Laboratory practice: reusability and cleaning
Laboratory
9:30 to 10:30
Data treatment: detection efficiencies and spectra
Lecture room
10:30 to 11:00
Coffee break
Lecture room
11:00 to 12:00
Data treatment: α/β discrimination performances
Lecture room
12:00 to 12:30
Final remarks
Lecture room
Lecturers: Luz Santiago, Dr. Hector Bagán, Dr. Alex Tarancón and Dr. José Francisco García.
Registration and presentation (Friday 15th, from 9:00 to 9:15 at lecture room)
 Delivery of the workshop documentation
 Presentation of the workshop
Fundamentals of PSm: Basic principles (Friday 15th, from 9:15 to 9:45 at lecture room)
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Plastic scintillation microspheres (PSm) vs liquid scintillators: general characteristics
PSm: shape, size, compositions and suppliers
Advantages and disadvantages
Main applications
Characteristics of the vial preparation and measurement
Fundamentals of PSm: mechanism and performances (Friday 15th, from 9:45 to 10:45 at
lecture room)
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Mechanism and quenching effects
Particle quenching: effect of the PSm diameter and sample composition
o Monte Carlo simulation
o Optical quenching
Effect of the PSm composition
α/β separation with PSm
Applications: highly salty samples and α/β indices (Friday 15th, from 11:15 to 11:45 at
lecture room)
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Samples with high ionic content: determination of a 14C radiotracer in samples coming
from separation processes
Determination of α/β indices in water samples
Applications: extractive plastic scintillation microspheres (ePSm) (Friday 15 th, from 11:45 to
12:30 at lecture room)
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ePSm: separation and vial preparation in a single step
Application to the quantification of 90Sr/90Y in water samples
Application to the quantification of a 14C radiotracer
Novel applications: scintillation imprinted polymers
Applications: continuous monitoring (Friday 15th, from 12:30 to 13:00 at lecture room)
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Continuous monitoring of radioactivity: the case of alpha and beta radionuclides
Basic performances of a detection cell based on PSm
Stability and memory effects
Analytical quality parameters for low level monitoring
Application to the monitoring of Ebro river
Practical aspects (Friday 15th, from 14:30 to 15:00 at laboratory)
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Vial preparation
Vial homogenization: sonication and centrifugation
Measurement
Post-measurement and reusability: filtering and cleaning
Laboratory practice (Friday 15th, from 15:00 to 17:30 at laboratory)
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Formation of working groups and material distribution
Preparation of samples: background, beta ( 3H, 63Ni,
(241Am)
Homogenization of vials
Measurement
14
C,
36
Cl,
90
Sr/90Y…) and alpha
Laboratory practice (Saturday 16th, from 9:00 to 9:30 at laboratory)
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Filtering of the sample vials and PSm cleaning
Data treatment: detection efficiencies and spectra (Saturday 16th, from 9:30 to 10:30 at
lecture room)
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Background: values and spectra
Beta and alpha radionuclides: detection efficiencies and spectra
Data treatment: α/β discrimination performances (Saturday 16th, from 11:00 to 12:00 at
lecture room)
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α/β separation in Quantulus detector
α/β separation in Triathler detector