Quality assurance of temporal variability of natural decay chain and neutron induced background for low-level NORM analysis
Articles > Article · 2016
Authors: Mıchael Duncan YOHO, Donivan R. Porterfield, Sheldon Landsberger
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Journal Indexed in SCI Expanded, International, Scopus, 2016, vol 307, pp 2459-2463
DOI: 10.1007/s10967-015-4467-9
Summary
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.