arXiv:1407.0413v1 [physics.ins-det] 1 Jul 2014

A compact ultra-clean system for deploying radioactive
sources inside the KamLAND detector
T. I. Banksa,∗, S. J. Freedmana,b,1 , J. Walliga , N. Ybarrolazaa , A. Gandoc ,Y. Gandoc , H. Ikedac , K. Inouec,b , Y. Kishimotob,c,2 , M. Kogac,b , T. Mitsuic ,K. Nakamurac,b , I. Shimizuc , J. Shiraic , A. Suzukic , Y. Takemotoc ,K. Tamaec , K. Ueshimac , H. Watanabec , B. D. Xuc , H. Yoshidac,3 ,S. Yoshidad , A. Kozlovb , C. Grante,4 , G. Keefere,5 , A. Piepkee,b ,T. Bloxhama , B. K. Fujikawaa,b , K. Hana , K. Ichimuraa,2 , H. Murayamaa,b ,T. O’Donnella , H. M. Steinera , L. A. Winslowa,6 , D. A. Dwyerf,7 ,R. D. McKeownf,8 , C. Zhangf,9 , B. E. Bergerg,b , C. E. Laneh , J. Maricich,10 ,T. Miletich,11 , M. Batygovi,12 , J. G. Learnedi , S. Matsunoi , M. Sakaii ,G. A. Horton-Smithj,b , K. E. Downumk,13 , G. Grattak , Y. Efremenkol,b ,O. Perevozchikovl,14 , H. J. Karwowskim , D. M. Markoffm , W. Tornowm,b ,K. M. Heegern,b,15 , J. A. Detwilero , S. Enomotob,o , M. P. Decowskip,baPhysics Department, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA, andLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USAb
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), University ofTokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan∗

Corresponding author. Email address: tbanks@berkeley.edu
Deceased2
Present address: Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, Universityof Tokyo, Hida, Gifu 506-1205, Japan
3
Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan4
Physics Department, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA
5
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA
6
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
7
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
8
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, Virginia 23606, USA
9
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Yaphank, New York 11980, USA
10
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu,
Hawaii 96822, USA
11
Department of Chemistry and Physics, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA 19038
12
Department of Physics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada
13
Milpitas High School, Milpitas, CA 95035, USA
14
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge,Louisiana 70803, USA
15
Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
1

Preprint submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A

July 3, 2014cResearch Center for Neutrino Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japane
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
35487, USAfW. K. Kellogg Radiation Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
California 91125, USAg
Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USAhPhysics Department, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USAi
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu,
Hawaii 96822, USAj
Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USAkPhysics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USAl
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
37996, USAm
Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory and Physics Departments, Duke University,
Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA; North Carolina Central University, Durham,
North Carolina 27707, USA; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel
Hill, North Carolina 27599, USAn
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USAoCenter for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, University of Washington,
Seattle, Washington 98195, USAp
Nikhef and the University of Amsterdam, Science Park, Amsterdam, NetherlandsdAbstract
We describe a compact, ultra-clean device used to deploy radioactive sourcesalong the vertical axis of the KamLAND liquid-scintillator neutrino detector
for purposes of calibration. The device worked by paying out and reeling inprecise lengths of a hanging, small-gauge wire rope (cable); an assortment
of interchangeable radioactive sources could be attached to a weight at theend of the cable. All components exposed to the radiopure liquid scintillator
were made of chemically compatible UHV-cleaned materials, primarily stainless steel, in order to avoid contaminating or degrading the scintillator. To
prevent radon intrusion, the apparatus was enclosed in a hermetically sealed
housing inside a glove box, and both volumes were regularly flushed withpurified nitrogen gas. An infrared camera attached to the side of the housing
permitted real-time visual monitoring of the cable’s motion, and the system
was controlled via a graphical user interface.
Keywords: Large detector systems for particle and astroparticle physics,2

Detector alignment and calibration methods (lasers, sources,
particle-beams), Scintillators, scintillation and light emission processes(solid, gas and liquid scintillators)
PACS: 29.40.Mc, 06.20.fb, 29.25.Rm, 14.60.Pq, 26.65.+t

3

Contents
1 Introduction

5

2 System design
6
2.1 Requirements and constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Materials selection and radioassay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.4 Motion control software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 Safeguards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3 Operating protocols
17
3.1 Source exchanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 Calibration deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4 Performance evaluation
21
4.1 Positioning accuracy and reproducibility . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2 Contamination assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5 Conclusions

24

4

Glove)box)

Chimney)

Liquid8scin:llator)
balloon)(diam.)13)m))Inner)
detector)
Containment)
vessel)(diam.)18)m))Outer)
detector)

Figure 1: The KamLAND detector.
1. Introduction
The Kamioka Liquid-scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector (KamLAND) isa physics experiment located 1 km underground in a mine near Kamiokacho, Gifu, Japan. KamLAND (Fig. 1) contains 1 kton of ultra-pure liquid
scintillator (LS) which serves as both the target and detecting medium forneutrino interactions. A detailed description of the detector is given in [1].
KamLAND was commissioned in 2001 and used primarily to study theflux and energy spectrum of electron anti-neutrinos emitted by surrounding
nuclear reactors. The experiment provided convincing evidence that antineutrinos are massive particles that undergo flavor oscillations during propagation and it yielded precision determinations of the neutrino oscillation
parameters [2–5]. In addition, KamLAND was the first experiment to report
evidence of geoneutrinos, which are anti-neutrinos produced by radioactivity
in the Earth’s interior [6]. A subsequent measurement by KamLAND indi5

cated that decay of radiogenic isotopes accounts for roughly half of the heat
flux emanating from the Earth’s interior; this was the first geoneutrino result
to constrain geothermal models [7].
From May 2007–February 2009 the KamLAND Collaboration conducted
an intensive campaign to further purify the detector’s LS, with the goal ofenabling detection of solar neutrinos from 7 Be decay in order to test aspects of the Standard Solar Model [8–10]. Purification was necessary because monoenergetic 7 Be solar neutrinos are detected via elastic scattering byelectrons, a method that requires much lower backgrounds than the delayedcoincidence technique used to detect higher-energy reactor anti-neutrinos. In
order to render a 7 Be solar neutrino measurement possible, the already low
concentrations in the LS of certain unwanted, long-lived isotopes—primarily
40
K, 85 Kr, and 210 Pb—had to be reduced by several orders of magnitude.
Detector calibrations—in which radioactive sources of known energy are
deployed to precise positions inside the LS in order to determine the timingof the surrounding photomultiplier tubes, the uncertainty in reconstructed
event positions, and the detector’s energy response—were identified as a potential threat to the radiopurity improvements expected from LS purification. There was strong evidence that the existing calibration systems had
introduced contamination (primarily 222 Rn, and thus its problematic longlived daughter 210 Pb) in amounts that would be unacceptable under the newexperimental circumstances [11]. Given that routine calibrations would be
essential to the collection of high-quality data, the collaboration decided to
implement a new, ultra-clean source deployment system for use following theLS purification campaign. The new calibration system, nicknamed “MiniCal” due to its compact size, is the subject of this paper.
2. System design
2.1. Requirements and constraints
The primary challenge in designing and building MiniCal lay in meetingoft-competing requirements regarding its size, cleanliness, and capabilities.
1. Compact size — Every calibration system used in KamLAND has
been installed inside a glove box atop the detector’s chimney (Fig. 1).
Access to the chimney and detector was possible via an 8-inch flanged
opening in the floor of the glove box. During normal data taking, detector access was blocked by two hermetically sealing gate valves located6

Glovebox(

full8volume(
calibra:on(system(hardware(transfer(box(detector(access(ﬂange(
MiniCal(electrical(
switchbox(

MiniCal(N2(gas((control(
glove(ports( panel(

Figure 2: Drawings of the MiniCal calibration device alone (right) and installed inside the glove box atop the KamLAND detector (left). MiniCal
is highlighted in blue in the latter for visibility. Space inside the glove box
was limited due to the continued presence of hardware from the previous,
full-detector-volume calibration system.
in series along the chimney’s column, and the glove box was typically
overpressured with nitrogen gas to prevent intrusion of contaminants,
primarily radon.
Prior to MiniCal, hardware from a previous, full-detector-volume calibration system [11] occupied a large fraction of the space in the glove
box. We wanted to leave that system intact to preserve the possibilityof making future off-axis deployments, so MiniCal was designed to fit
in the small space available beneath it (Fig. 2). It should be mentionedthat the full-volume calibration system could not be deployed while
MiniCal was installed because the latter blocked access to the detector.

7

The largest components of MiniCal also needed to be small enough to
fit inside the glove box’s 1-cubic-foot transfer box so that the new system could be moved into the glove box piecemeal and assembled inside.
And despite its small size, MiniCal needed to be amenable to servicing
via the glove box’s thick Viton gloves.
2. Materials and cleanliness — The KamLAND LS is a highly active, radiopure solvent composed primarily of dodecane and pseudocumene [1]. MiniCal needed to be capable of withstanding prolonged
exposure to LS vapors without suffering negative effects. In addition,
all MiniCal components to be submerged in the LS had to be ultraclean and possess low intrinsic radioactivity (to avoid contaminating
the detector), and they had to be made of materials that would not bedamaged by the LS or degrade its optical purity.
The two preceding calibration systems had used large-gauge wire ropeand wide-ribbon woven-nylon cables, respectively, and their large surface areas tended to collect radon during idle periods and then transport
it into the detector during deployments. To avoid this problem—andalso to meet the stringent spatial constraints—it was necessary that
MiniCal utilize a small-gauge cable of some kind. We also elected to
enclose the apparatus within its own hermetically sealed housing toprovide a secondary barrier against radon intrusion.
3. Accuracy and precision — To accomplish useful detector calibrations, the new deployment system had to be capable of placing a source
within ±2 mm of any point along the detector’s central vertical axis
(z-axis), a length spanning 19 m from the glove box to the bottom of
the LS balloon.
2.2. Materials selection and radioassay
The KamLAND LS is a mixture of 20% pseudocumene, 80% dodecane,and 1.36 g/l of the fluor PPO. Pseudocumene is a highly active organic
solvent that can damage the structural integrity of many materials, so care
had to be taken when choosing components for the calibration system.
Previous tests by the KamLAND collaboration [11] and others [12] had
identified a select number of materials chemically compatible with the LS.
The MiniCal components to be submerged in the LS or exposed to its vapors
8

in the glove box were made almost exclusively from materials that had beenpreviously approved by the collaboration, including 304 and 316 stainlesssteel, titanium, gold, nylon, Teflon, Viton, and quartz. Only 416 stainlesssteel, whose magnetic properties were needed for one small component which
would be submerged (see Sec. 2.5), required new examination and approval.
LS soak and light attentuation tests on samples indicated this 416 component
would not negatively affect the LS. All other MiniCal components to besubmerged in the LS were made of 304 or 316 stainless steel.
To guard against introducing radioactive contaminants into the KamLAND detector, strict protocols were followed in cleaning and certifying theparts of the calibration system that would enter the detector volume or be
exposed to LS vapors. All such parts were UHV-cleaned, and the system
was preassembled and packaged in a class 10,000 clean room at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) before shipment to the experimental
site. Items that were to be submerged in the LS, or that would come into
direct contact with components to be submerged in the LS, underwent anadditional cleaning and certification procedure [11] consisting of a series ofheated ultrasonic cleanings in a weak solution of aqueous trace-metal-grade
nitric acid and deionized water (0.2 mol/l). A 100-ml sample of the nitricsolution was collected at the end of the final cleaning and counted using asurface Ge detector operated by the LBNL Low Background Facility [13]. No
evidence of U, Th, or K contamination above the detector’s sensitivity limits
was observed; the upper limits after a ∼ 30-day count were U < 4 mBq/kg,
Th < 2 mBq/kg, and K < 130 mBq/kg, where kg refers to leachate mass.
2.3. Hardware
The basic concept for the MiniCal system is simple: it used a stepper
motor to turn a spool of cable and thereby lower and raise a radioactive
source along the z-axis of the KamLAND detector (Figure 3). The motionof the cable was measured by an encoded pulley located above the z-axis,
enabling precise positioning of the source.
We elected to use a thin-gauge cable because compared to the alternatives (e.g., a chain or sprocketed cable) it offered the best combination of
simplicity and cleanliness. The primary drawback was that great care had
to be taken to prevent cable slippage on the encoded pulley, as that would
have ruined positioning accuracy. The cable was made by Strand Products,
Inc., from 1/32-inch-diameter, 7×19-stranded, 120-pound tensile wire rope9

encoded&z)axis&pulley&
upstop&limit&sensor&
guide&pulley&
wire&rope&(cable)&stepper&motor&

upstop&trigger&
collar&weight&camera&backdrop&
camera&level)wind&cable&spool&

10 cm!

Figure 3: Cutaway drawing of the interior of the MiniCal housing. The
cable is drawn in green and the components it touches are shaded red. The
driveshaft and level-wind mechanism are shaded blue.
that had been proof-loaded to 60% of its breaking strength to eliminate constructional stretch16 . This particular cable was selected for several reasons:
it is composed entirely of T304 stainless steel, which is LS-compatible; it
has a small diameter, which served to minimize both the amount of space
it occupied when spooled and the amount of surface area that could collectcontaminants; and its 7 × 19 strand lay renders the cable very supple andallowed it to maintain good contact with the encoded z-axis pulley, which
was machined from titanium to minimize its rotational inertia. Each endof the cable terminated in a swaged bushing: one end was anchored to thespool, while the other end was attached to a free-hanging 0.55 kg weight
which kept the cable under tension to ensure good contact with the encodedpulley. A captured, spring-loaded pin in the underside of the weight was16

Our own dynamometer tests demonstrated that the breaking strength of the cable
assemblies was approximately 100 pounds (45 kg).

10

used for easy attachment of different radioactive sources. The attachment
mechanism was designed to be backwards-compatible with existing sources
used with the previous calibration systems, requiring only that each source
be fitted with an adaptor bolt.
The cable was wound on a custom spool modeled after a Penn GTO 220
level-wind fishing reel. This device contained a cable guide mechanicallycoupled to the spool’s rotation to wind cable evenly and compactly along thelength of the spool. A small guide pulley located between the spool and thez-axis pulley prevented the side-to-side motion of the spooling cable from
affecting its smooth passage over the z-axis pulley. The spool was turnedby an Anaheim Automation 23MDSI integrated stepper motor performing
1600 steps/revolution.
It had been observed that the previous KamLAND calibration system
had introduced small amounts of radon into the LS, likely due to small leaksin the glove box that allowed ingress of ambient air. In order to provide an
added barrier against radon intrusion, the MiniCal hardware was enclosed
within a hermetically sealed housing (Figure 4) which was bolted to the 8inch-diameter conflat flange welded to the floor of the KamLAND glove box(Figure 2). The housing was constructed by welding together jointed, 1/8inch-thick stainless steel panels; afterwards it was electropolished to remove
oxidation and passivate the surface. The interior was accessed through a
5.5×7.4 in2 rectangular opening which faced the glove box’s gloves and wasusually covered by a removable door. A Viton O-ring seated in the faceof the door formed a seal against the housing when the the door’s handoperated dial was cranked to press the two surfaces together. The housing
sat atop a 1.8-inch-tall stand tube (3-inch OD, 2.75-inch ID) in order toprovide clearance for inserting bolts into the 8-inch flange at its base.
The z-axis pulley was mounted to the housing’s ceiling on a movable stage
which could be translated in two dimensions to center the hanging cable overthe detector’s vertical axis. The centering procedure was performed at thetime of installation with assistance from a cross-hair-engraved cover plate
inserted in the stand-tube opening inside the MiniCal housing.
The floor of the housing was angled slightly so that LS brought up by thecable during deployments collected in its front. The accumulated LS—which
was prevented from returning to the detector by a small collar around thestand-tube opening in the housing’s floor—was periodically drained througha manually operated Swagelok Whitey P-series stainless steel purge valve(with PTFE ball) mounted on the lower corner of the housing. This valve
11

removable)door)

upper)purge)valve)
z5axis)pulley)feedthrough)motor)canister)

camera)canister)lower)purge)valve)rotatable)85inch)ﬂange)

Figure 4: The MiniCal housing in a test bench setup.
and an identical one located above it also functioned as vents during nitrogengas purges of the MiniCal housing volume (see Sec. 3.1). The spring-loaded
valves were bracketed by steel retaining arms to prevent them from being
unscrewed to the point of disassembly.
In order to prevent the stepper motor from introducing contaminants
or coming into contact with corrosive LS vapors, it was enclosed inside aleak-tight stainless steel canister attached to the side of the housing. The
motor’s 1/4-inch driveshaft connected to the cable spool via an MDC Vacuum
direct-drive rotary mechanical feedthough.
An infrared camera provided real-time visual monitoring of the cablewhen the housing was sealed shut during deployment operations. Like themotor, the camera—an Allied Vision Techologies Guppy F-038B black-andwhite, near-infrared, asynchronous Firewire digital camera with a Kowa
Model LM25JC 2/3-inch machine vision lens—was enclosed in a sealed canister. The camera viewed the interior of the housing through a quartz window,
with two Advanced Illumination SL4301 880-nm IR LED 5-volt spot lights
attached to the underside of the camera providing illumination. Infrared
imaging equipment was chosen because the operating spectrum lies above
12the ∼ 600 nm optical cutoff of the detector’s PMTs.
All MiniCal flanges were made of stainless steel and joined using titanium
bolts to avoid galling. The bolts were tethered to prevent being dropped orlost during assembly and disassembly. The flanges did not rely on knife
edges to form gas-tight seals; instead, they had been modified to employ
seated Viton O-rings, based on a design developed at LBNL. This techniqueoffers several advantages over conventional flange gasket seals, which aresingle-use and can be awkward to manipulate manually. A rotatable 8-inchflange was used for the base of the MiniCal housing to permit convenientalignment of the housing during installation. The camera canister contained
the assembly’s lone quick flange, which was useful for providing prompt accessto the camera during its initial tuning.
2.4. Motion control software
The MiniCal system was controlled and monitored using custom Javasoftware running on a dedicated computer in an electronics room adjacentto the experiment. The software consisted of two independently functioning
parts: a control side which communicated with the hardware, and a graphicaluser interface, or GUI (Figure 5), which communicated with the control
side. The two layers used the Java Remote Method Invocation protocol tocommunicate with each other in real time via changes to the values of a setof shared parameters. All system actions and parameter changes were logged
to a PostgreSQL database.
The computer, a small-form-factor CappuccinoPC SlimPRO 620S, ran
the open-source Fedora 9 Linux operating system. Three 9-pin serial ports
were used to communicate with the stepper motor and encoders, and a
Firewire port was used to communicate with the camera. The camera’s
output was viewed using the software program Coriander. One of the serial
ports was used to communicate with both the stepper motor and a Crouzet
XT20 Millenium II+ programmable logic controller (PLC) which enabled
software-controlled switching of power to the hardware. The PLC was usedprimarily to power the hardware on and off at system startup and shutdown,
and to toggle power to the driveshaft safety brake and the IR lights duringsystem operation.
The stepper motor’s rotation was measured by a US Digital E5D opticalencoder which was read out by a US Digital AD4-B-D quadrature encoder
counter. The motor’s revolutions could not be used to precisely determine
cable payout, however, because the spool’s effective radius changed with the13

Figure 5: MiniCal graphical user interface (GUI).
amount of spooled cable. Instead, cable payout (and hence the source’s
position) was determined using the 3.6-cm-diameter titanium z-axis pulley,
whose rotations were measured by a Renishaw RM22I non-contact rotary
encoder with a resolution of 800 counts/revolution. The z-axis pulley was
attached to a gold-plated rare-earth magnetic actuator which rotated inside
the fixed stainless steel RM22I encoder housing; the encoder transmitted
standard incremental quadrature output which was counted by another US
Digital AD4-B-D unit. The pulley encoder electronics were enclosed insidea small hermetically sealed stainless steel box inside the MiniCal housing.
Because cable payout was controlled by the motor but measured by thez-axis pulley, the system generally had to iterate several motions before thedeployed source reached the desired destination. When the user instructed
the system to move the source to a new destination, the software computed14

a conservatively low estimate for the number of motor steps required andprogrammed this number into the motor. After the stepper motor executed
the programmed index, the software compared the source’s current position
against the destination and reprogrammed the motor as necessary. This
process was repeated until the source converged to within 0.1 mm of its
destination. The maximum translational speed of the cable during motion
was restricted to ∼ 3.5 cm/s. The software took into account the fact thatthe amount of cable stretch varied slightly according to the weight of theattached source and the length of cable paid out17 . Most of the sources
generated a maximum additional stretch of only 0.15 cm, though for one
unusually heavy source the value was 0.6 cm.
The computer and power supplies were physically separated from the
hardware by roughly 130 feet of distance and several barriers, chiefly the
glove box and the MiniCal housing. To span the gap, the system utilized twointervening custom-built electronics boxes, one at each end, which contained
devices for transmitting and processing data and power. The stepper motor
and the two encoders communicated in RS485 protocol, which is well-suitedfor long-distance transmission; the motor and encoder signals were converted
to RS232 protocol by a special adaptor and encoder counters, respectively,
to communicate with the computer’s serial ports. The camera’s communications were transmitted using a Newnex FireNEX-CAT5 S400 extender pair,which converted the short-range IEEE 1394a (Firewire) protocol into a form
suitable for long-distance transmission over standard cat5e ethernet cable at
400 Mbps. CeramTec sub-D and micro-D weldable hermetic feedthroughs
were used to pass the electrical signals and power through the walls of the
glove box and the MiniCal housing. Radiopurity considerations prohibit theuse of solder in components exposed to the glove box environment, so all
in-glove box electrical wiring was made from Teflon-coated wires and PEEK
connectors using gold-plated crimped connections.
2.5. Safeguards
The MiniCal system possessed several built-in safety features, both inhardware and software, to prevent accidents or damage to either the detector
or to the system itself.
17

We characterized the cable’s stretching behavior by measuring lengths of a similarcable when hung with loads of 0 kg, 0.5 kg, and 1.0 kg.

15• An Anaheim Automation NEMA23 electromagnetic friction brake was
attached to the driveshaft between the stepper motor and the spool.
When electrical power was applied to the brake its electromagnet overcame the mechanical force from a spring, permitting the driveshaft toturn freely; when power was turned off the spring forced friction plates
together, clamping the driveshaft in place. This type of “power-off” or“fail-safe” brake was desirable because it would immediately lock thedriveshaft if power were lost.
• A Polyclutch EFS 16 “slip-ease” clutch was connected to the driveshaft
between the motor and the brake. In the unlikely event that the cable
became caught, the clutch slipped at 4 kg weight equivalent, far below
the cable’s approximately 45 kg breaking strength. Moreover, the motor itself slipped at roughly 4.5 kg weight equivalent, so the system wasincapable of generating sufficient tension to break the cable.
• An Automation Direct 12-mm round stainless steel inductive proximity
sensor was installed just below the z-axis pulley to prevent the weightfrom being raised too high and colliding with the pulley superstructure.
The upstop sensor was triggered by a small 416 stainless steel collar
installed at the end of the cable just above the weight. When thesensor was triggered it sent a signal directly to the motor that blocked
its ability to execute further upward motion. (The motor remained
capable of downward motion.)• The cable length was chosen so that even at maximum extension an
attached source could not come into contact with the bottom of the
KamLAND balloon.
• The GUI enforced restrictions on acceptable user-entered values to prevent the system from operating outside safe limits.
• The software continuously monitored the status of the system, mostnotably the motion of the motor and z-axis pulley. If the software
observed any motion when the system was supposed to be stopped, orif the driveshaft or pulley rotation speeds exceeded certain limits, or if
there was any disagreement between the motor encoder and the z-axis
pulley encoder (e.g., due to cable slippage), the software immediately
stopped the motor and engaged the safety brake to prevent the cable16

Source

Half-life

Radiation

Energy (MeV)

203

46.61 d30.07 a270.8 d244.3 d432.2 a5.271 a

γ
γ
β+
γ
n
γ

0.279
0.662
1.022
1.116
2.223†
2.506‡

Hg
Cs
68
Ge
65
Zn
241
Am-9 Be
60
Co
137

†
‡

From delayed capture by hydrogen. Some prompt γ rays are also seen.
From successive 1.173 MeV and 1.333 MeV γ rays.

Table 1: Radioactive sources used in detector calibrations, ordered by energy.
These particular sources were chosen because their radiation spans the lowenergy range of the neutrino spectrum observed in KamLAND.
spool from turning. The system would therefore self-arrest if the motor
failed.
In the unlikely event that the motor failed during a source deployment, thesource could be retrieved by removing the motor assembly and replacing
it with a special ratcheted hand crank. The software possessed a special
emergency mode for this situation.
3. Operating protocols
The MiniCal system was designed to be safe, simple, and capable ofoperation in all aspects by a single person. Operators were responsible forexchanging sources, managing the flow of nitrogen gas through the system,
and conducting calibration deployments.
3.1. Source exchanges
The first step in preparing for a calibration was to attach the desiredradioactive source to the end of the MiniCal cable. A list of the sources used
and their energies is given in Table 1.
To exchange sources, the weight and its attached source were first raised
to the uppermost possible position inside the MiniCal housing, and the chimney’s upper gate valve was closed as a safety measure. The operator thenremoved the front access door and installed a special nylon plug in the floor
17weightspringpin pullringsourcerod nut
nylon
plug

sourcecapsuleFigure 6: Illustrations of the weight and its source attachment mechanism.
An internal spring-loaded pin is used to capture source rods inserted into
the weight; the source rods have a D-shaped profile that ensures correctalignment. The spring pin has two small tines (highlighted above in red) toprovide an unambiguous visual indicator of when a source has been securely
captured inside the weight, and for anchoring the spring-loaded pin in its
retracted position. A nylon plug with a rotatable disk (shown above, in red,in its open position) was used for safely capturing a source released from theweight.
opening of the housing. This plug contained a rotatable disk that could
be closed around the source rod to securely capture it and prevent it frombeing dropped down the detector access tube. At this point the operator
released the source from the weight by pulling the ring on the spring-loaded
attachment pin, allowing the source to fall out and be caught by the plug
(Figure 6).
To install a source, the procedure was reversed. The source was lifted
up by hand and inserted in the bottom of the weight; the source shaft’s
D-shaped cross section ensured alignment with the attachment pin. Oncethe source was fully inserted, the spring-loaded attachment pin was released
to capture the source inside the weight. The pin had two small tines that18

provided unambiguous visual confirmation of a successful attachment; when
the tines disappeared from view inside the weight, the source and weight
were securely connected and the plug could be removed.
After the source exchange was complete, the operator reinstalled the doorof the housing, reopened the chimney’s upper gate valve, and configured
the system so that purified nitrogen gas continually flowed up the chimney
through the MiniCal housing and out of the glove box, to purge the volumesof any radon. After several hours had passed (typically by the morning of
the following day), the operator ended the nitrogen gas purge, sealed the
MiniCal housing off from the glove box by closing the purge valves, opened
the chimney’s lowermost gate valve to permit access to the detector, andproceeded with the source deployment.
3.2. Calibration deployments
Deployments were generally conducted “remotely” from the experiment’s
nearby control room, where the operator established a virtual network computing (VNC) connection to the MiniCal computer to manipulate the systemusing the GUI and to monitor the live camera feed.
Before starting a deployment, the operator had to calibrate the system byzeroing the source at a known position. This was accomplished by moving
the weight to the position where a notch on its neck was visually alignedwith a horizontal reference line in the center of the camera backdrop, awater-jetted sheet of Teflon attached to an electropolished titanium backing
plate for contrast (Fig. 7). The operator then pressed the “Tare” button in
the GUI and the software calculated the source’s center of activity, using thepremeasured source lengths and the known location of the reference line withrespect to the detector.
After its position had been established by a tare operation, the source wastypically lowered to each desired position in succession, beginning with theuppermost position. When moving between positions, the operator watched
the cable as it passed through the camera’s field of view, in order to verify
that the system was behaving correctly and to monitor the cable’s condition(e.g., check for frayed wires). After the source came to a stop at a deployment
position, the operator turned off the infrared lights, set the driveshaft brakefor security, and commenced taking data. A separate data file was recorded
for each calibration point (Figure 8).
To enable consistency checks of the system’s position, two small sleeves(“beads”) were swaged onto the cable at the time of its manufacture, and19

Centerline

Notch

(a)

(b)

Figure 7: Two images of the weight in its “tare” position, in which the notchin the weight’s neck is aligned with the long centerline in the camera backdrop. Photo (a) shows the weight and rulered backdrop inside the MiniCal
housing, while screenshot (b) shows the same scene as viewed through thecamera. The backdrop’s hash marks are spaced at 5 mm intervals.
the exact positions of the beads were found by hanging the cable under
its expected load in a controlled environment at LBNL and measuring itwith a precision tape measure. By comparing the known bead positions
with the positions reported by the MiniCal system, the operator could verify
the system was accurately reporting the cable payout; this was the only
precise means of verifying the system’s performance in situ. The beads had
a negligible effect on the system’s measurement of cable payout.
Coarse assessments of the source’s position and the detector’s contamination levels were provided in near real time by an automated online data
analysis which processed most of the incoming data and displayed the results. The online software was configured for general-purpose analysis andthe information it provided was useful primarily for monitoring for any grossabnormalities while a deployment was in progress.
Routine detector calibrations were typically performed once every two
weeks. A complete source deployment lasted between 5–8 hours, depending upon the type and intensity of the source and the number of deployment positions. For example, a standard calibration using a ∼ 200 Bq 60 Co
source consisted of placing it at 0.5-meter intervals between z = 6.0 m and20

Figure 8: Activity from a 60 Co source deployed to z = +5, +3, 0, −3, −5 malong the detector’s z-axis, as reconstructed from the data. The colors correspond to the intensity of detected activity.
z = −6.0 m (where z = 0 m is the center of the LS balloon) and leaving it ateach point for ∼ 15 minutes.
4. Performance evaluation
MiniCal was operated routinely from February 2009 until June 2011,
when it was dismounted to permit a final deployment of the full-volume calibration system. During its operational period MiniCal performed 65 source
deployments and (including tests) executed more than 90 round trips into
the detector. Immediately before being uninstalled, MiniCal was used tocontinuously deploy a CdWO4 crystal assembly to the center of the detector
for a special study lasting several days.
4.1. Positioning accuracy and reproducibility
Upon being installed in the KamLAND glove box, MiniCal exhibitednear-perfect reproducibility in positioning. However, the cable payout ratio
21

that had been established during system testing no longer appeared to becorrect, as the position of the single bead reported by the system disagreed
by 2.9 cm with prior tape measurements of the loaded hanging cable—that
is, MiniCal reported the cable to be almost 3 cm shorter than we believed
was the case. After accounting for the effects on cable stretch from buoyancy(−0.1 cm) and the precise value of the attached weight (−0.7 cm) there
was still a persistent 2.1-cm discrepancy. It thus appeared the system’s
payout ratio had somehow been altered in the course of being disassembled,
cleaned, reassembled, and installed in the glove box. We made the decision
to recalibrate the payout ratio to the premeasured position of the bead; thisentailed increasing the payout ratio from 11.298 cm/rev to 11.315 cm/rev,
which corresponds to an increase of 0.0027 cm in the effective radius of thez-axis pulley.
In January 2011 the original single-beaded cable was replaced in situ
with a similar cable possessing two evenly spaced beads which provided an
additional reference point over a longer length. The positions of the twobeads had been measured with care beforehand using a precision tape on
the hanging cable under load. The new, double-beaded cable verified thecorrectness of the recalibrated cable payout ratio established roughly two
years earlier. The reason for the change in the payout ratio between thesystem’s offsite testing and onsite operation remains unknown.
A small hysteresis of 2–3 mm of undershoot was consistently observed
when the weight returned to its tare position after being deployed to its
maximum depth in the detector. This was likely due to a small degree ofcable slippage on the z-axis pulley from the lubricating effects of the LS
during reel-in. The effect was tiny, but to minimize the risk of positioning
errors we typically placed a source at progressively lower positions during acalibration and only raised it at the conclusion of the deployment.
It was observed that small white crystals sometimes formed on the portionof the cable near the weight when the system was idled for weeks or more.
We believe the crystals were PPO from the LS brought up by the system,and their formation was likely promoted by the drying effects of the constantnitrogen gas flux through the MiniCal housing. We observed that the crystals
dissolved immediately upon submersion in the LS and did not affect the cablepayout accuracy.

22

1

222

Rn activity (µBq/m3)

10

10-1

10-2

Apr '09

Jul '09

Oct '09

Jan '10

Apr '10

Jul '10

Oct '10Jan '11

Apr '11

Date

Figure 9: 222 Rn activity in the KamLAND detector over the period MiniCal was in use. The radon activity level is determined from the efficiencycorrected number of 214 Bi-214 Po decay coincidences inside a 5.5-m-radius
spherical volume; the statistical error is reflected in the width of the blackline. The red intervals indicate MiniCal deployments into the detector; nocorrelation between radon activity and deployments is apparent. The prominent feature beginning in July 2010 is due to a disruption in the detector’s water cooling system which produced strong convection in the LS and brought
contaminants from the balloon’s surface into the fiducial volume.
4.2. Contamination assessment
The KamLAND detector itself provides the most sensitive means of measuring radioactivity inside it. The level of 222 Rn is of particular interest
because it was known to have been introduced into the detector by previous
calibration systems, and its long-lived daughter 210 Pb would have presented
a problematic background to detecting 7 Be solar neutrinos during the highpurity phase of the experiment.
The level of 222 Rn activity inside the LS can be determined via its daughters 214 Bi and 214 Po, whose successive decays occur close together in time(∼ 1 ms) and therefore generate a robust delayed-coincidence signal. The
measured 222 Rn activity level vs. time is plotted in Fig. 9 for the period when
MiniCal was in use. As the figure shows, there is no apparent correlation
between MiniCal deployments and changes in 222 Rn activity. Indeed, most of23

the features in the 222 Rn activity history can be attributed to fluctuations in
detector operating conditions, usually changes in temperature that generated
convection currents which circulated contaminants from the balloon surface
into the fiducial volume. It is worth noting that in Fig. 9 we present theradon activity inside a 5.5-m-radius spherical volume primarily for purposeof comparison with data from the previous calibration system [11], but wefind the fundamental result is the same if we consider instead a smaller-radius
cylindrical volume centered on the path the MiniCal cable traveled along thedetector’s z-axis.
In sum, we did not observe evidence that MiniCal introduced any contamination, radon or otherwise—even during extended multi-day deployments—
above the background levels existing in the LS following purification.
5. Conclusions
We successfully designed, built, and operated an ultra-clean calibration
system that enabled accurate, precise positioning of radioactive sources along
the z-axis of the KamLAND detector. The main device is simple in concept,
but its realization was challenging due to the need to make it compact andprecise in its operations while also ensuring it would not contaminate ordegrade the detector’s highly radiopure liquid scintillator. The system wasroutinely used to deploy sources inside the detector over a period of more than
two years, and no adverse effects on the liquid scintillator were observed. We
are now in the process of modifying the system for use in KamLAND-Zen,an experiment utilizing the KamLAND detector to search for neutrinolessdouble-beta decay of 136 Xe [14–16].
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the UC Berkeley physics and LBNL machine shops for
manufacturing and assembling many MiniCal components. Thanks are also
due to: K. Terao and C. Shimmin for their assistance in testing MiniCal;
Al Smith of the LBNL Low Background Facility for radioassaying materials;
J. Busenitz at the University of Alabama for help in ensuring that new andexisting radioactive sources were mechanically compatible with MiniCal; andthe former members of the full-volume calibration system team for sharing
their experience and advice.

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The KamLAND experiment is supported by: the Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research under grants 16002002 and 21000001 from theJapanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology;
the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Initiative),
MEXT, Japan; Stichting FOM in the Netherlands; and the US Department of Energy (DOE) under grants DE-AC02-05CH11231 and DE-FG0300ER41138, as well as other DOE grants to individual institutions. The
Kamioka Mining and Smelting Company provided service for activities in
the mine.
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[8] G. Keefer, et al., Laboratory Studies on the Removal of Radon-Born
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