Determination of correction factor of self-absorption for lead-210 in environment samples using spike method

Abstract

In environment radiation measurement, calculation the correction factors are critical, especially for low energy measurement because of self-absorption phenomena. In this work the main purpose is to determination the self-absorption correction factors of lead-210 (210Pb) energy (46.5keV) in various environment samples (7 sediments, 5 soil) using an experimental method called Spike Method. The samples were collecting from different places in Syrian. They were prepared according to the laboratory producers starting from collecting, cleaning, drying, grounding, hemogenic and calculating the appearance density. Low-energy gamma spectroscopy HPGe was used for radiation analysis which available at the laboratories of the Protection and Safety Department - Syrian Atomic Energy Commission – Syria. The spike method depends on adding a quantity of a standard solution with a known activity which contains lead isotope 210Pb and added to the studied samples. Self-absorption correction factors (CF) calculated by the ratio of the count rate or activity of spiked and unspiked samples. The CF for sediment samples were between 29% to 54% and for soil samples, the CFs were between 38% to 56% recording correction higher than sediment samples. The results showed a relatively high self-absorption and CFs values because of the chemical composition changeable between the spiked and unspiked samples. For that, it is better to adopt other methods less expensive, give results faster, higher accuracy and do not make change in the chemical composition. The results were also showed the density factor is the most influential factor in self-absorption phenomena.