Monte Carlo simulations of NaI(Tl) spectra for measurements of semi-infinite plumes.

For the past 10 y Health Canada has operated a Fixed Point Surveillance Network of NaI(Tl) detectors across Canada. Deployed for both emergency response and daily monitoring of airborne radiation in the environment, a spectral stripping method allowed measurement of certain isotopes well below the ambient dose rate. These include (133)Xe, (135)Xe and (41)Ar, typical of emissions from operating nuclear reactors. In an effort to increase the number of isotopes measured at these low levels a new technique of spectral fitting using spectral templates is being implemented. However, this requires very accurate spectral templates that can be difficult or impossible to obtain empirically for environmental measurements of airborne radio-isotopes. Therefore, a method of efficiently using Monte Carlo techniques to create these templates was developed.