TY - JOUR
T1 - A semi-empirical approach to determine gamma activities (Bq kg- 1) in environmental cylindrical samples
AU - Palacios, Daniel Francisco
AU - Alfonso, Juan A.
AU - Barros, Haydn
AU - LaBrecque, John J.
AU - Pérez, Karla
AU - Lossada, Marian R.
PY - 2008/1
Y1 - 2008/1
N2 - A semi-empirical method to determine radionuclide concentrations in large environmental samples without the use of reference material and avoiding the typical complexity of Monte-Carlo codes is proposed. The calculation of full-energy peak efficiencies was carried out from a relative efficiency curve (obtained from the gamma spectra data), and the geometric (simulated by Monte-Carlo), absorption, sample and intrinsic efficiencies for energies between 130 and 3000 keV. The absorption and sample efficiencies were determined from the mass absorption coefficients, whereas the intrinsic efficiency was approximated by an empirical function. The deviations between calculated and experimental efficiencies for a reference material in most cases are less than 10%. Radionuclide activities in marine sediment samples calculated by the proposed method and by the experimental comparative method were not significantly different. This new method can be used for routine environmental monitoring when uncertainties up to 10% are acceptable.
AB - A semi-empirical method to determine radionuclide concentrations in large environmental samples without the use of reference material and avoiding the typical complexity of Monte-Carlo codes is proposed. The calculation of full-energy peak efficiencies was carried out from a relative efficiency curve (obtained from the gamma spectra data), and the geometric (simulated by Monte-Carlo), absorption, sample and intrinsic efficiencies for energies between 130 and 3000 keV. The absorption and sample efficiencies were determined from the mass absorption coefficients, whereas the intrinsic efficiency was approximated by an empirical function. The deviations between calculated and experimental efficiencies for a reference material in most cases are less than 10%. Radionuclide activities in marine sediment samples calculated by the proposed method and by the experimental comparative method were not significantly different. This new method can be used for routine environmental monitoring when uncertainties up to 10% are acceptable.
KW - Full-energy peak efficiency
KW - Gamma-ray spectroscopy
KW - Marine sediments
KW - Monte-Carlo calculations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=40649115405&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.radmeas.2007.11.043
DO - 10.1016/j.radmeas.2007.11.043
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:40649115405
SN - 1350-4487
VL - 43
SP - 77
EP - 84
JO - Radiation Measurements
JF - Radiation Measurements
IS - 1
ER -
