Optimal allocation of nuclear detector time for radioactive samples

Accuracy in measuring radioactivity of a sample is directly proportional to the time allocated for that sample. With scarcity of time, laboratories are faced with huge number of samples to be analyzed in a limited span of time. Such a situation was encountered duping Chernobyl accident when many nuclear laboratories were flooded by foodstuffs and other samples for radioactivity analysis. This paper offers a methodology that arrives at the optimal allocation of nuclear detector time for a given number of samples, under time constraints. The methodology is based on minimizing the sum of associated standard deviations of the net counting rate of samples. This is done with the assumption that the background radiation is the same for all samples. For validation, an analytical solution was devised with the background radiation assumed negligible. Results found using this methodology were compared to those found analytically, both produced identical results. (Author)