GEANT4 calibration of gamma spectrometry efficiency for measurements of airborne radioactivity on filter paper

Health Phys. 2014 Nov;107(5):435-41. doi: 10.1097/HP.0000000000000127.

Abstract

A simple method of efficiency calibration for gamma spectrometry was performed. This method, which focused on measuring airborne radioactivity collected on filter paper, was based on Monte Carlo simulations using the toolkit GEANT4. Experimentally, the efficiency values of an HPGe detector were calculated for a multi-gamma disk source. These efficiency values were compared to their counterparts produced by a computer code that simulated experimental conditions. Such comparison revealed biases of 24, 10, 1, 3, 7, and 3% for the radionuclides (photon energies in keV) of Ce (166), Sn (392), Cs (662), Co (1,173), Co (1,333), and Y (1,836), respectively. The output of the simulation code was in acceptable agreement with the experimental findings, thus validating the proposed method.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollutants, Radioactive / analysis*
  • Algorithms
  • Calibration
  • Computer Simulation
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Photons
  • Radiation Monitoring / methods*
  • Radioisotopes / analysis*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Software
  • Spectrometry, Gamma / methods*

Substances

  • Air Pollutants, Radioactive
  • Radioisotopes