Practical methods for the functioning evaluation of the whole body counter system Accuscan II of the ININ

The whole body counter system Accuscan II of the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares (ININ), was designed and built to quantify and to measure radionuclides fission product as well as gamma emitters, with a maximum sensibility of less than 10 n Ci for cobalt 60 at one time of counting of 5 minutes. The system has two detectors of Ge(Hp) with Beryllium window to a relative efficiency of 25% in a counting configuration of vertical scanning, this configuration gives a plane response of constant efficiency. In this work some practical methods developed in the Internal Dosimetry Laboratory to carry out the functioning evaluation of the whole body counter system Accuscan II of the ININ are described. With the obtained results of this evaluation we can decide fine adjustments will be necessary for the optimization of the equipment operation. The evaluation of this equipment was especially necessary, due to its 21 years-old antiquity and for the gradual changes that has in its functioning. The equipment is intrinsically a gamma spectrometry system and some described experiences could be applied too in other gamma spectrometry systems. (Author)