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Measurement of naturally occurring radioactive material, 238U and 232Th: part 2—optimization of counting time

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Abstract

An effort has been made to optimize the counting time for low-level measurement of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) by considering the standard deviation between the activity values of different photopeaks and counting error. It is observed that at lower counting time, relative standard deviation (RSD) varies randomly, but attains a gradual trend with increasing time and also comes closure to the counting error. Therefore minimum counting time for low-level NORM measurement of 238U and 232Th would be the time required to stabilize the RSD values.

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Acknowledgement

Authors gratefully acknowledge Professor Sukalyan Chattopadhyay, HENPP Division of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics for fruitful discussions. This work is part of DAE-SINP 12 five-year plan project TULIP (Trace, Ultratrace Analysis and Isotope Production). One of the authors, NN would like to thank University Grants Commission (UGC) for providing the necessary fellowship. Alok Srivastava (AS) would like to thank DST-PURSE program for providing funds for sample collection. The support provided to him by Panjab University, Chandigarh, India and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany is also gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, 700019, India

    Nabanita Naskar & Punarbasu Chaudhuri

  2. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF, Bidhannagar, Kolkata, 700064, India

    Nabanita Naskar & Susanta Lahiri

  3. Chemistry Department, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India

    Alok Srivastava

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  1. Nabanita Naskar
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  2. Susanta Lahiri
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  4. Alok Srivastava
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Correspondence to Susanta Lahiri.

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Naskar, N., Lahiri, S., Chaudhuri, P. et al. Measurement of naturally occurring radioactive material, 238U and 232Th: part 2—optimization of counting time. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 312, 161–171 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5205-2

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