Speaker
Dr
Dung Manh Ho
(Technological and Nuclear Institute, Sacavem, Portugal)
Description
Compton suppression system (CSS) in conjunction with γ-ray spectrometer allows to lower the detection limits for certain elements by reducing the background levels in the acquired γ-ray spectra. The calibration of CSS for use in the k0-based neutron activation analysis (k0-NAA) has been performed in normal mode and applied to Compton suppression mode. In this case, efficiency data are only applied to radionuclides that emit non-coincident γ-rays. In this work the applicability of the k0-NAA method using CSS (k0-CSNAA) in Compton suppression mode for radionuclides that emit coincident γ-rays is tested. The SMELS (a synthetic multi-element standard) consisting of nuclides with different γ-ray energy and Q0 values was used to evaluate the Compton suppression factor for several radionuclides of interest, e.g. 60Co, 51Cr, 152Eu, 59Fe, 75Se, 46Sc and 85Sr. The applicability of k0-CSNAA has been tested by analyzing several reference materials, i.e. Coal Fly Ash (NIST-SRM-1633a), Soil (IAEA-Soil-7) and Lichen Material (IAEA-CRM-336). Preliminary results of the test are presented and discussed.
Primary author
Dr
Dung Manh Ho
(Technological and Nuclear Institute, Sacavem, Portugal)
Co-authors
Dr
Daniel Beasley
(Technological and Nuclear Institute, Sacavem, Portugal)
Dr
Maria do Carmo Freitas
(Technological and Nuclear Institute, Sacavem, Portugal)
Mr
Nuno Canha
(Technological and Nuclear Institute, Sacavem, Portugal)
