Determination of 226Ra contamination depth in soil using the multiple photopeaks method

Radioactive contamination presents a diverse range of challenges in many industries. Determination of radioactive contamination depth plays a vital role in the assessment of contaminated sites, because it can be used to estimate the activity content. It is determined traditionally by measuring the activity distributions along the depth. This approach gives accurate results, but it is time consuming, lengthy and costly. The multiple photopeaks method was developed in this work for 226Ra contamination depth determination in a NORM contaminated soil using in-situ gamma spectrometry. The developed method bases on linear correlation between the attenuation ratio of different gamma lines emitted by 214Bi and the 226Ra contamination depth. Although this method is approximate, but it is much simpler, faster and cheaper than the traditional one. This method can be applied for any case of multiple gamma emitter contaminant.