TENORM Industries and Alpha Spectrometry: Spectra Deconvolution

Alpha spectrometry is a useful method for measuring alpha emitters in all types of samples and for all types of radioisotopes, both artificial and natural. The high activity concentration of TENORM industries’ by-products and their management are of great concern; however, due to the high activity and the complex matrixes of these types of wastes, there are overlaps between peaks and an acute activity determination can require a high consumption of time and material. To diminish it and obtain a proper activity evaluation, spectra deconvolution has been carried out using a genetic algorithm to fit the selected function to experimental data. This algorithm uses the analyst’s visualization of the observed experimental spectrum as a reference and adapts the fitting parameters to the observed peak. This gives the algorithm great capacity to adapt to different spectra obtained experimentally. The results of its application to different TENORM samples have been very satisfactory, including complicated multi-energetic alpha emitters such as Th-229.