SOME ASPECTS RELATED TO THE HIGH PERFORMANCE IN GAMMA SPECTROMETRY 

G. Vieru^*, R. Mihaiu, V. Nistor

Institute for Nuclear Research, Reliability and Testing Laboratory, 0300 Pitesti,

P.O. Box 78, Pitesti, Romania, Phone: +40 248 213 400 Int.: 130, 

ABSTRACT

Gamma spectroscopy is the science (or art) of the identification and/or quantification of the radionuclides through gamma-ray energy spectrum analysis.  It is a recognized technique, which is well illustrated by the following example of applications: environmental radioactivity monitoring, health physics personnel monitoring, reactor corrosion monitoring, nuclear materials safeguards and homeland security, as well as for nuclear forensics, materials testing, nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals, industrial process monitoring.

Within the Reliability and Testing Laboratory of INR Pitesti there is now available such a detector of high performance and includes all aspects related to cooling, signal processing (with a high resolution) and the dedicated software applications. 

At present time, taking into account the “nuclear renaissance” the new experimental testing laboratories it requires complete set-up rather than laboratories having a mixture of old equipment.

The paper presents the mechanically cooled HPGe spectrometers with an undergoing rapid evolution, which eliminate traditional intensive liquid nitrogen management. Some experimental results data are also given.

In the same time there are described the digital signals processing virtually by eliminating system drift, and, in the same time, making recalibrations much less frequently. Another important aspect presented is related to the software applications.

 KEYWORDS: performance, spectrometry, software, resolution.