A semi-empirical approach to analyze the activities of cylindrical radioactive samples using gamma energies from 185 to 1764Â keV

This work suggests a method for determining the activities of cylindrical radioactive samples. The self-attenuation factor was applied for providing the self-absorption correction of gamma rays in the sample material. The experimental measurement of a 238U reference sample and the calculation using the MCNP5 code allow obtaining the semi-empirical formulae of detecting efficiencies for the gamma energies ranged from 185 to 1764 keV. These formulae were used to determine the activities of the 238U, 226Ra, 232Th, 137Cs and 40K nuclides in the IAEA RGU-1, IAEA-434, IAEA RGTh-1, IAEA-152 and IAEA RGK-1 radioactive standards. The coincidence summing corrections for gamma rays in the 238U and 232Th series were applied. The activities obtained in this work were in good agreement with the reference values.