An approach to evaluate the efficiency of γ-ray detectors to determine the radioactivity in environmental samples

This work provides an approach to determine the efficiency of γ-ray detectors with a good accuracy in order to determine the concentrations of either naturally occurring or artificially prepared radionuclides. This approach is based on the efficiency transfer formula(ET), the effective solid angles, the self- absorptions of the source matrix, the attenuation by the source container and the detector housing materials on the detector efficiency. The experimental calibration process was done using radioactive(Cylindrical Marinelli) sources, in different dimensions,that contain aqueous152 Eu radionuclide. The comparison point to a fine agreement between the experimental measured and calculated efficiencies for the(NaI HPGe) detectors using volumetric radioactive sources.