A dual purpose Compton suppression spectrometer

A gamma-ray spectrometer with a passive and an active shield is described. It consists of a HPGe coaxial detector of 42% efficiency and 4 NaI(Tl) detectors. The energy output pulses of the Ge detector are delivered into the 3 spectrometry chains giving the normal, anti- and coincidence spectra. From the spectra of a number of 137Cs and 60Co sources a Compton suppression factor, SF and a Compton reduction factor, RF, as the parameters characterizing the system performance, were calculated as a function of energy and source activity and compared with those given in literature. The natural background is reduced about 8 times in the anticoincidence mode of operation, compared to the normal spectrum which results in decreasing the detection limits for non-coincident gamma-rays up to a factor of 3. In the presence of other gamma-ray activities, in the range from 5 to 11 kBq, non- and coincident, the detection limits can be decreased for some nuclides by a factor of 3 to 5.7. (author)