GEANT4 simulation of photo-peak efficiency of small high purity germanium detectors for nuclear power plant applications

Abstract

GEANT4 – based Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out for the determination of photo-peak efficiency of heavily shielded small high purity germanium detector (HPGe) used for monitoring radiation levels in nuclear power plants. The GEANT4 simulated values of HPGe detector efficiency for point as well as for disk sources, for two different values of collimator diameter, have been found in good agreement with the corresponding published results obtained by using the MCNP code. The work has been extended to study the effect of radial displacement of a source relative to a detector on photo-peak efficiency for both point and disk source, and at various values of γ-ray energies. Also the effect of disk source radius on photo-peak efficiency has been studied. Besides the results of different available physics models in GEANT4 have also been compared. The computed values of efficiency for point as well as for disk sources using the Penelope and Livermore physics models have been found correspondingly consistent for various values of γ-ray energies while some differences (e.g., Penelope model yields 6.3% higher values of photo-peak efficiency for Eγ = 1.332 MeV, 10 mm collimator diameter) have been observed in the corresponding valued obtained by using the Standard physics model.