GAUSS VIII: a computer program for the nuclide activity analysis of. gamma. -ray spectra from GE semiconductor spectrometers

Technical Report · Sun Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5948087

Putman, M H; Helmer, R G; McCullagh, C M

A description is given of a computer program, GAUSS VII, which has been written to determine nuclide or isotopic activities from ..gamma..-ray spectra from GE semiconductor spectrometers. The preliminary portion of the program can determine the energy- and width-calibration equations, locate individual peaks and define ''peak regions'' that are significantly above the local spectral background. The user may edit these lists of peaks and regions. Each peak region is fitted with one or more components in which the peaks are represented by a Gaussian function or a Gaussian with one or two additive exponential tails on the low-energy side and one on the high-energy side. A step-like background function can be used with each component. The program will automatically recycle to add one or more components to a region if needed to improve the fit. The ..gamma..-ray energies and intensities are computed from the resulting Gaussian positions and peak areas. From a comparison of these peak energies and the ..gamma..-ray energies for various nuclides in a nuclide library, the nuclides that may be present are identified. The user may edit this nuclide list. The program identifies secondary ..gamma.. rays that should be present for these nuclides and obtains peak areas for them, if the areas are not already available. All of the peak areas are then analyzed to obtain the best nuclidic activities. The peak areas for any one nuclide and those for nuclides that have interfering lines are analyzed in one least-squares ft. Nuclides whose activities are essentially 0, and peaks which cannot be accounted for are removed from the analysis. Besides the nuclidic activities, a peak-by-peak summary is provided. This program is intended to analyze large groups of spectra as well as an individual spectrum.

• Research Organization: EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-76ID01570
• OSTI ID: 5948087
• Report Number(s): EGG-PBS-6768; ON: DE86009099
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

440103* -- Radiation Instrumentation-- Nuclear Spectroscopic Instrumentation
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
COMPUTER CODES
DATA ANALYSIS
FUNCTIONS
G CODES
GAMMA SPECTRA
GAMMA SPECTROSCOPY
GAUSS FUNCTION
GE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
ISOTOPES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIOISOTOPES
SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY