Zaijing Sun, Krishnakumar Nangeelil, Haven Searcy (all Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) published an article titled, “Developing a Remote Gamma-ray Spectra Collection System by Coupling a High Purity Germanium (HPGe) Detector with a CosmicGuard Background Reduction Device,” in HARDWAREX.

The paper introduces the design and implementation of a cost-effective, customized remote gamma-ray spectra collection system centered around the HPGe detector coupled to a cosmic-ray veto background reduction device. Haven Searcy is a graduate student in Environmental Health Physics. 

The kickoff meeting for INAA research on water resources took place at the USDA Experimental Station in Reno. Dr. Zaijing Sun, the Principal Investigator (PI) from the Department of Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences at UNLV, Dr. Frank Yang, the Co-PI from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UNR, and Ms. Christine Kelly, the Co-PI from the Nevada Radon Education Program at the USDA Experiment Station in Reno convened to officially kick off the project titled “Applying Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) to Study the Increasing Toxicity of Heavy Metals in Water Resources in Clark County.” The meeting involved discussions on the environmental challenges confronting Southern Nevada due to the ongoing megadrought and population growth. Agreements were reached regarding the implementation of sample collection and neutron irradiation processes. Following the meeting, Dr. Sun had the opportunity to explore the laboratories at the Water Research Institute at UNR, gaining insights into the facilities’ capabilities.

The primary execution of the research will be led by the HERD group at the UNLV campus. The funding for this project is provided by the USDA Extension through the UNR-UNLV partnership program, contributing to further enhancing UNLV’s status as a land-grant institution.

Krishnakumar Nangeelil and Zaijing Sun  (both Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) recently gave oral presentations at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society(HPS AM 2023) in National Harbor, Maryland. Nangeelil’s talk is titled “Comparison of GEANT 4 Simulation and Experimental Measurements of CosmicGuard Background Reduction System,” and Sun’s talk is titled “Developing a Remote Gamma Spectra Collection System for Nuclear Sciences.” Sun also served as the session chair in the instrument session of the conference. 

Zaijing Sun (Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) was interviewed by Insider.com again and talked about the DIY underground bunker in the event of nuclear war. His discussion was published in the science section of Insider.com and titled: “How to build a cheap DIY underground bunker to protect you from nuclear fallout“. 

Dr. Zaijing Sun (Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) recently gave a seminar titled “Developing a Remote Gamma Spectra Collection System (RGSCS) for Online Teaching in Radiation Sciences” at East Carolina State University. The project he discussed serves as a platform, especially for minority students, for studying software design, data acquisition, instrumental control, and prototype testing in real-time scenarios of radiation detection. It improves educational and research endeavors online, diminishes the needs of laboratory personnel, and significantly reduces the cost of education.

Zaijing Sun (Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) was recently interviewed by insider.com and talked about the impact of nuclear fallout. His discussion was published in the science section of Insider.com and titled: “Most surprising facts about the radioactive particles that poison the air after a nuclear bomb detonates.”

Christina Jiang successfully defended her thesis entitled “Applying Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) to Acess Air Pollution with Spanish Moss (Tillandsia Usneoides) as a Bioindicator in the Low Country of The Savannah River Basin” on March 16th, 2023.

In this study, samples of Spanish moss were collected from the Savannah River Basin area. After the samples were irradiated with reactors, radioisotopes were measured by High Purity Germanium detectors, and gamma spectra were collected using Canberra’s Genie 2000 software. The experimental results indicate that: (1) Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis can accurately determine the heavy elements in Spanish moss; (2) The concentrations of heavy metals in the samples of Spanish moss have clear correlations with local sources of air pollution in the region of the Savannah River Basin which proves that Spanish moss can serve as an effective bioindicator of air pollution.

The committee includes Dr. Zaijing Sun (chair), Dr. Steen Madsen, Dr. Carson Riland, and Dr. Alexander Barzilov.

Christina will start her new job as a research scientist at the Remote Sensing Laboratory of the Nevada National Security Site next week. Congratulations to Christina!

Krishnakumar Nangeelil, Peter Dimpfl, Zaijing Sun (all Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences), Shichun Huang (Currently faculty at UTK, a former member of the Department of Geosciences at UNLV), and Mayir Mamtimin (Halliburton) published an article entitled “Preliminary Study on Forgery Identification of Hetian Jade with Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis” in Applied Radiation and Isotopes. The study indicates that INAA can be applied qualitatively to identify similarities and differences in the elemental composition and quickly distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine Hetian jade. Peter Dimpfl is a recent master graduate in Medical Physics.

Zaijing Sun and Krishnakumar Nangeelil (both Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) recently gave oral presentations at the 26th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry in Denton, Texas. Sun’s talk is titled, “Developing a Remote Gamma Spectra Collection System for Radiation Sciences at UNLV,” and Nangeelil’s talk is titled, “Determination of heavy elements in water and sediment along the Savannah river using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis.”

Krishnakumar Nangeelil, Christina Hall, and Zaijing Sun (all Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) and their collaborator, Wesley Frey at the McClellan Nuclear Research Center of the University of California Davis, published an article titled, “Biomarker response of Spanish moss to heavy metal air pollution in the low country of the Savannah River basin,” in the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry.

The neutron activation of this study was done at the UC Davis reactor, the most powerful TRIGA reactor in universities. The results indicate that Spanish moss is an ideal biomarker for air quality monitoring, and there is a significant enhancement of heavy metal concentrations for Spanish moss living in high-traffic zones. Nangeelil is a postdoctoral scholar in the School of Integrated Health Sciences, and Hall is a graduate student majoring in environmental health physics.