Calibration Method and Experiment of in-Situ Radioactivity Measurement in Seawater Based on Monte Carlo Simulation

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering Vol. 646; no. 1; pp. 12005 - 12010
• Main Authors: Zhang, Y Y, Wu, B W, Feng, X D, Liu, D Y, Zhang, Y
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.10.2019
• Subjects: Calibration; Experiments; Gamma rays; Marine environment; Monte Carlo simulation; Radioactivity; Radioisotopes; Seawater; Simulation; Underwater
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/646/1/012005

Some research on the in-situ radioactivity measurement in seawater and development of underwater spectrometer using NaI(Tl) scintillation crystal are being carried out for the automatic and continuous monitoring in the marine environment. The gamma spectrometer must be efficiency calibrated for the detection of radionuclides in the seawater. For the problem of traditional experiments, a simulation model of in-situ radioactivity measurement in the seawater was established by using Monte Carlo statistical method. The model simulates the in-situ measurement environment of seawater and the characteristics of the underwater spectrometer developed by ourselves. By calculating the interaction between gamma-ray photons emitted by radionuclides in seawater and various atoms in seawater and the internal structures of the spectrometer, the marine detection efficiency of the underwater spectrometer developed was calculated and verified by the field experiments. The results show that this kind of non-experimental calibration method is effective and feasible for the underwater spectrometer and further research and experiments will continue.