Self-Attenuation Correction of Gamma-Ray from 40K, 226Ra and 232Th in Salt, Soil, Crayfish Powder, Milk Powder, and Pulverized Grass

Humans are inseparable from the environment, and radionuclides are everywhere in the environment; therefore, materials/samples from the environment need to be subjected to identification and quantification of radionuclides for radiological and other purposes. Consequently, the objective of this paper was to investigate the Self-attenuation correction of gamma-ray from 40K, 226Ra, and 232Th in Salt, Soil, Crayfish powder, Milk powder, and Pulverized Grass using Gamma-ray spectrometry (GRS). Data obtained show that the Self-attenuation coefficients of the environmental samples with varying densities for 40K, 226Ra, and 232Th per cm, respectively are: Salt (0.236, 0.230, 0.213), Soil (0.252, 0.240, 0.206), Crayfish powder (0.231,0.222, 0.196), Milk powder (0.243, 0.231, 0.197), and Pulverized Grass (0.187, 0.172, 0.129). The Self-attenuation coefficients with increasing density from 0.11gcm-3 (grass) to 1.29gcm-3 (salt) for gamma-ray energies of the interval 352 keV and 2614 keV per cm are 0.2421 to 0.3870 (353 keV), 0.2306 to 0.3708 (583 keV), 0.2293 to 0.3690 (609 keV), 0.2142 to 0.3478 (911 keV), 0.2037 to 0.3332 (1120 keV), 0.1867 to 0.3094 (1460 keV), 0.1764 to 0.2881(2614 keV), and 0.1290 to 0.2286 (2614 keV). The correction factors were higher at lower gamma energies and lower at higher gamma energies in all the samples. These factors are integral in determining the unknown efficiencies of samples with no available standards.