Quality assurance of temporal variability of natural decay chain and neutron induced background for low-level NORM analysis

Journal Article · Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4467-9· OSTI ID:1296660

Yoho, Michael ^[1]; Porterfield, Donivan R. ^[2]; Landsberger, Sheldon ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

In this study, twenty-one high purity germanium (HPGe) background spectra were collected over 2 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A quality assurance methodology was developed to monitor spectral background levels from thermal and fast neutron flux levels and naturally occurring radioactive material decay series radionuclides. ²³⁸U decay products above ²²²Rn demonstrated minimal temporal variability beyond that expected from counting statistics. ²³⁸U and ²³²Th progeny below Rn gas displayed at most twice the expected variability. Further, an analysis of the 139 keV ⁷⁴Ge(n, γ) and 691 keV ⁷²Ge(n, n') spectral features demonstrated temporal stability for both thermal and fast neutron fluxes.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1296660
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15-22454
• Journal Information: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Vol. 307, Issue 3; Conference: International Conference on Methods and Applications of Radioanalytical Chemistry (MARC), Kona Keauhou, HI (United States), 12-14 Apr 2015; ISSN 0236-5731
• Publisher: Springer
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
NORM
neutron
background
quality assurance
HPGe