The Application of Solid State Detectors to Environmental and Biological Problems

Abstract

The applicability of the new high-resolution semiconductor detectors to the direct instrumental analysis of several complex mixtures of radionuclides has been demonstrated. Samples investigated include environmental and biological samples containing radionuclides from nuclear weapons testing, atmospheric spallation reactions, emanation gases, etc. and neutron activated samples used in the determination of trace element concentrations. These investigations have shown that the increased selectivity of the semiconductor detectors allowed a much more precise analysis of most of the constituents than is possible with conventional NaI(Tl) spectrometry. These studies have also shown that far some radionuclides, the sensitivity of the semiconductor detector is even greater than the highly selective NaI(Tl) multidimensional spectrometers.