Precision Measurements of the Minimum Detectable Activity of Radionuclides by Plastic Scintillators for Radiation Monitoring

This work is devoted to the precision evaluation of the minimum detectable activity (MDA) measurement of gamma radiation radionuc­lides 137Cs and 60Co using plastic scintillators (PS). Scintillators are part of the detectors, which are sensitive elements of radiation portal moni­tors (PM). PS were produced at the Institute for scintillation materials of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (ISMA NAS of Ukraine). The evaluation was generate in accordance with State standard of Ukraine ISO 5725-2:2005 [1] through statistical processing of experi­mental material. This made it possible to take into account the factors that determine the scattering of results without a model equation. Influence of PS sizes, energy radiation detected and distance from PS to the source of ionizing radiation (SIR) on the value of MDA precision measurement was studied. Precision coefficients of radionuclides MDA measurement evalua­ted when changing PS sizes from 500×300×50 mm (7500 cm3) up to 500×500×50 mm (12500 cm3), changing the energy radiation detected from 662 keV (137Cs) until 1332 keV (60Co), changing the distance from the PS to SIR from 10 to 50 cm. The results are presen­ted in Fig. 6—9 and Table. Found, that the greatest contribution to the increase in MDA precision coefficient measurements makes a change in the irradia­tion geometry. It is shown that when distance from PS to SIR increases from 10 to 50 cm, precision values increase: when registering 137Cs, from 3,9 to 7,0 % (V = 7500 cm3) and from 3,6 to 6,3 % (V = 12500 cm3); when registering 60Co, from 3,1 to 4,3 % (V = 7500 cm3) and from 3,2 to 3,8 % (V = 12500 cm3). It is established, that the obtained results are due to the change in the contribution of background count rate to PS count rate under different measurements conditions. This contribution affects on the value of sensitivity coefficient and consequently on the value of MDA and precision coefficient.