Measurement technique for characterization and recording of spent 57Co and 68Ge/68Ga sealed radioactive sources

Abstract

The present work concerns the development of a technique for activity determination of 68Ge/68Ga and 57Co disused radioactive sources. This technique aims to determine the activity of these sources by measuring and Monte Carlo simulation using the MCNPX code. Therefore, efficiency calibrations of the 3 x 3 NaI(Tl) detector for specific source geometries were carried out. Spectrums for two types of disused radioactive sources were collected for different measurement times. The characteristic gamma rays of a flood source containing 57Co and a line source containing 68Ge/68Ga, were used. In case of 68Ge/68Ga, the annihilation peak of 511 keV was also used considering the disused radioactive sources as a positron emitter. Sources of the mentioned types with certified nominal activities were used to validate MCNPX models. For the 57Co source, 15 minutes measuring time was adequate for activity determination, and 2 hours measuring time provided adequate sensitivity, at the level of general clearance. For 68Ge/68Ga line source, 15 minutes measurement was adequate for activity determination by using the 511 keV from the annihilation of 1899.1 keV positrons.