The estimation of the ²¹⁰ Pb bremsstrahlung contribution to the background of lead shielded γ-spectrometers

Abstract

The 46.5 keV γ-intensity of 210 Pb in the background can be easily reduced by inner lining, but the bremsstrahlung from the 1.2 MeV maximal energy β-decay will reach the lead shielded Ge detector. The spectrum of this bremsstrahlung is calculated by numerically fitting the β-spectrum and integrating the Koch-Motz formula. The adsorption of the bremsstrahlung spectrum in the lead is calculated by the effective solid angle algorithm by comparison with the measured background spectrum. It is shown, that for the lead with 25 Bq/kg of 210 Pb, at 100 keV the bremsstrahlung contribution to the background is about 20%. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.