Many experiments which require very low levels of background radiation are located deep underground as the deep underground facilities provide significant rock overburden and commensurate reduction in the cosmic ray flux and cosmic ray-spallation induced products. However, even when an experiment is deep underground there are still backgrounds present, these can include high-energy cosmic ray...
Rn-222 progeny produce unwanted background events in underground rare-event searches including those for dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay. ZnS(Ag) Lucas cells were used during the SNO experiment to evaluate Radon emanation into light water and continue to be used for ex-situ measurements of Radon concentration in SNO+ and at SNOLAB for materials assays. Support for current and...
Receiving low levels of background and measuring trace amounts of remaining radioactivity is very important for particle astrophysics experiments looking for neutrinos or dark matter. The original SNO collaboration developed and has been using Lucas Cells since 1992. They are instrumental to measure the radon concentration in its surrounding water shield as well as its nitrogen cover gas...
Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are single-photon-sensitive devices under consideration for light sensing in noble liquid detectors. One of the experiments considering SiPMs is the neutrinoless double beta decay experiment, nEXO. nEXO plans to search for this decay with 5 tonnes of liquid xenon over a lifetime of 10 years. SiPMs are intended to be placed inside the liquid xenon volume to ...
Radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas present in our homes, is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. With nearly 1 in 5 Canadian homes exceedingly Health Canada’s radon guideline level and only 5% of households having tested for radon, radon exposure remains a critical public health issue that is responsible for over 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in Canada. As part of...
