Self-absorption correction and efficiency calibration for radioactivity measurement of environmental samples by gamma-ray spectrometry

In this work empirical functions which relate the full-energy peak efficiency with sample height, energy, matrix composition and bulk density for voluminal samples in a cylindrical counting geometry were found. Accurate determination of the radioactivity of gamma-emitting radionuclides in environmental samples requires taking into account self-absorption. For the obtained self-absorption correction factor, a direct transmission method was chosen. Finally, this paper proposes a simple correlation between the self-absorption correction factor and the bulk density and height of the measured sample for a given energy.