The rapid determination of americium in sediments by NaI(T ) gamma spectroscopy

Abstract
As an alternative to radiochemical separations and alpha spectroscopy, a rapid and cheap method of determining 241Am in sediments by Nal(Tl) gamma spectroscopy is described. The 0.06 Mev photopeak is used with a special correction for the iodine KX‐ray escape in a Nal(Tl) detector after the elimination of the interfering 0.026 Mev photopeak with a SiO2 absorber. The technique has comparable precision and accuracy with the alpha counting approach.