A software counting loss correction method for neutron activation analysis with short-lived radionuclides

Abstract

A method has been developed for the correction of counting losses in NAA for the case of a mixture of short-lived radionuclides. It is applicable to systems with Ge detectors and Wilkinson or successive approximation ADC's and will correct losses from pulse pileup and ADC dead time up to 90%. The losses are modeled as a constant plus time-dependent terms expressed as a fourth order polynomial function of the count rates of the short-lived radionuclides. The correction factors are calculated iteratively using the peak areas of the short-lived radionuclides in the spectrum and the average losses as given by the difference between the live time and true time clocks of the MCA. To calibrate the system a measurement is performed for each short-lived nuclide. In a test where the dead time varied from 70% at the start of the measurement to 13% at the end, the measured activities were corrected with an accuracy of 1%.