Detecting Environmental Radioactivity

Manuel García-León received his PhD degree in Nuclear Physics (1983) from the University of Seville where is Full Professor of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics since 1997. He has more than 200 publications in international journals, including 4 edited books, mostly on low-level counting techniques and accelerator mass spectrometry applied to the determination of radionuclides in the environment. He has supervised 20 PhD Thesis and 40 Master Thesis. He has been invited as researcher in many Universities and Research Centers (Lund, Uppsala, Helsinki, Vienna, Sendai, Kanazawa, ETH/PSI at Zürich, NIRS at Japan, IAE in China among others). With some 40 years of experience, he has an intensive teaching activity in the University of Seville and other Spanish Universities, mainly on experimental nuclear physics, applied nuclear physics as well as radioactivity and environmental Radioactivity. Currently, he is coordinating a Joint Master Studies Programme in nuclear physics offered by several Spanish Universities and Research Centers. Since 2000 he has been involved in University and Science management activities, being Vice-Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Vice-Rector for Research of the University of Seville, Director of the National Centre for Accelerators in Spain, Director General for Research and Knowledge Transfer of the regional government of Andalucía, Spain, and Director of the Andalusian Knowledge Agency.

Introduction.- Radioactivity: history and phenomenology.- Radioactivity: decay law, definitions and units.- Natural and Artificial radioactivity.- Environmental Radioactivity.- Levels and behaviour of Environmental Radioactivity.- Radiological impact. Radiation dosimetry.- Principles of radiation detection: interaction of radiation with matter.- Principles of radiation detection: counting and spectrometry.- Gas ionization detectors.- Scintillation detectors.- Semiconductor detectors.- Dosimeters, other detectors and specific designs.- Radiochemistry for environmental samples.- Principles of Low-Level Counting and Spectrometry.- Low-Level Counting and Spectrometry Techniques.- Principles of Mass Spectrometry.- Principles of Particle Accelerators.- Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS).- Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA).