Spectral interference corrections for the measurement of (238)U in materials rich in thorium by a high resolution gamma-ray spectrometry.

In this study, the spectral interferences are investigated for the analytical peaks at 63.3 keV of (234)Th and 1001.0 keV of (234m)Pa, which are often used in the measurement of (238)U activity by the gamma-ray spectrometry. The correction methods are suggested to estimate the net peak areas of the gamma-rays overlapping the analytical peaks, due to the contribution of (232)Th that may not be negligible in materials rich in natural thorium. The activity results for the certified reference materials (CRMs) containing U and Th were measured with a well type Ge detector. The self-absorption and true coincidence-summing (TCS) effects were also taken into account in the measurements. It is found that ignoring the contributions of the interference gamma-rays of (232)Th and (235)U to the mixed peak at 63.3 keV of (234)Th ((238)U) leads to the remarkably large systematic influence of 0.8-122% in the measured (238)U activity, but in case of ignoring the contribution of (232)Th via the interference gamma-ray at 1000.7 keV of (228)Ac to the mixed peak at 1001 keV of (234m)Pa ((238)U) results in relatively smaller systematic influence of 0.05-3%, depending on thorium contents in the samples. The present results showed that the necessary correction for the spectral interferences besides self-absorption and TCS effects is also very important to obtain more accurate (238)U activity results. Additionally, if one ignores the contribution of (232)Th to both (238)U and (40)K activities in materials, the maximum systematic influence on the effective radiation dose is estimated to be ~6% and ~1% via the analytical peaks at 63.3 and 1001 keV for measurement of the (238)U activity, respectively.