Search the EPA Research Database

Project title

Development and Application of Monte Carlo models for HPGe gamma spectrometry

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

University College Dublin (UCD)

Lead Applicant

Luis Leon Vintro

Project Abstract

The aim of the project is to automate and optimise the characterisation and efficiency calibration of the HPGe gamma spectrometry detectors in use at the EPA's Office of Radiological Protection analytical laboratory, and to extend the use of Monte Carlo methods to the calculation of self-attenuation and true coincidence summing corrections for a range of common environmental matrices and radionuclides. To this end, the commercially available Monte Carlo simulation software GESPECOR will be used, in combination with traditional efficiency calibration techniques using certified standards, to develop an automated process for the optimisation of detector model input parameters, so that experimentally-determined full energy peak efficiency curves for a number of reference geometries are accurately reproduced by the model simulation. Robust testing and validation of the derived correction factors will be achieved by the analysis of reference materials of known activity and composition. A thorough estimation of the uncertainties associated to the main input parameters and correction factors, and their contribution to the combined standard uncertainty associated with a measurement will be carried out, with specific focus on the efficiency calibration, true coincidence summing and self-attenuation effects. The project will result in a minimum of two peer-reviewed publications in international journals, and the production of a detailed guide providing a step-by-step description for all the procedures employed to characterise and develop a reliable detector model, so that these can be implemented for any new HPGe detector acquired by ORP in the future. It will also contribute to much needed training of suitably qualified and experienced personnel for future recruitment in the field of environmental radioactivity monitoring and radionuclide measurement. It will also align the activities of the EPA's ORP analytical laboratory with those of working groups in the International Committee for Radionuclide Metrology (ICRM) and the IAEA's Analytical Laboratories for the Measurement of Environmental Radioactivity (ALMERA). By supporting and training a researcher to PhD level, the project also addresses the issue of competence and maintenance of expertise in the area of radionuclide detection and analysis, producing suitably qualified personnel available for future research and recruitment by national and international regulatory bodies. The progressive loss of expertise and the need for training a new generation of experts in environmental radioactivity measurement has been the focus of a number of recently funded EC projects.

Grant Approved

�115,680.00

Research Hub

Healthy Environment

Research Theme

Health and well being

Start Date

01/09/2016

Initial Projected Completion Date

31/08/2019