Abstract
Quantification of radionuclide activities in gamma spectrometry can be a challenging task. It depends on efficiency calibration, peak area calculation, nuclide decay data and correction factors, such as attenuation correction or true coincidence summing corrections. These quantities can present significant challenges to an accurate analysis. It is therefore desirable to have a way of assessing the quality of the radionuclide quantification that can be applied to samples with unknown activities and radionuclide compositions. A verification of the self-consistency of the analysis is one possible way of accomplishing this. In gamma spectrometry it is possible to calculate radionuclide activities using information from multiple gamma emission energies. This leads to an overdetermined system for which the solution can be used to look for inconsistencies. By calculating the recovered peak areas from the radionuclide activities and comparing these to the measured peak areas, outliers can be identified and by resolving these inconsistencies the analysis of the spectrum can be improved. This peak area consistency evaluation can be used to find incorrect shape of the efficiency calibration, missing interferences in the nuclide decay data, and point to peaks where the peak area calculation needs to be optimized. The performance of the method has been shown on a simple spectrum consisting of three radionuclides that are interfering with each other as well as a complex spectrum with unknown radionuclide composition and activities. The method will be integrated into a future version the Genie 2000 Gamma Spectroscopy Software.
Highlights
GAMMA spectrometry is a non-destructive measurement method for identifying and quantifying the activities of gamma-ray emitting radionuclides in a wide variety of samples including radioactive waste, environmental, and radio pharmaceutical.A typical gamma spectrometry analysis contains several components: peak location, peak area calculation, background subtraction, nuclide identification and activity evaluation, as well as detection limits determination [1]
The detection efficiency of the sample can be different than the calibration standard or mathematical model used for the efficiency calibration
The method will be included in the Genie 2000 Gamma Spectroscopy Software
Summary
GAMMA spectrometry is a non-destructive measurement method for identifying and quantifying the activities of gamma-ray emitting radionuclides in a wide variety of samples including radioactive waste, environmental, and radio pharmaceutical. A typical gamma spectrometry analysis contains several components: peak location, peak area calculation, background subtraction, nuclide identification and activity evaluation, as well as detection limits determination [1]. The main inputs to the nuclide identification and activity calculation are the peak energies and background corrected peak areas, nuclide decay data, and efficiency calibration. Each of these present a significant challenge to the gamma spectrometrist and can be the cause of inconsistencies in the analysis. Self-consistency is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a correct analysis of the gamma spectrum This method is applicable for complex spectra where more than one peak contributes to the peaks in the gamma spectrum. The method will be included in the Genie 2000 Gamma Spectroscopy Software
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