Abstract
The most used technique in radioactive sample analyses is gamma-ray spectroscopy based on an HPGe detector counting system. The first requirement to perform the analyses is an energy and efficiency calibration of the detection system. A radioactive standard source with properties that are the same as the sample properties that being measured in terms of geometry and physical specifications is required. A suitable calibration source is not always available for each sample measured, then an alternative technique has to be used as to perform the system efficiency calibration. Some of the techniques available; efficiency simulation and efficiency transfer. In this project efficiency transfer is used to estimate the efficiency of a given sample geometry using two software packages, ANGLE3 & ETNA. Efficiency values for eight containers available at the local market were estimated using the two softwares, and the best container was selected among those available. This was container C8 with dimension; height = 15mm and diameter = 53mm, that yielded the highest efficiency values. The efficiency curves of the eight containers obtained by ETNA and ANGLE3 software were compared, to examine the shapes of the efficiency curves and anomaly points, if any. The effect of source material density on the efficiency has been studied. Materials with higher density have lower efficiencies, and vice versa. For the same energy, the efficiency linearly decreases with the increase in sample density. ANGLE3 performance was tested for different values of calculation precision. Using higher precision took longer calculation times, however, no significant improvement of the efficiencies has been achieved.