Can scintillation detectors with low spectral resolution accurately determine radionuclides content of building materials?

The current paper makes an attempt to check whether the scintillation NaI(Tl) detectors, in spite of their poor energy resolution, can determine accurately the content of NORM in building materials. The activity concentrations of natural radionuclides were measured using two types of detectors: (a) NaI(Tl) spectrometer equipped with the special software based on the matrix method of least squares, and (b) high-purity germanium spectrometer. Synthetic compositions with activity concentrations varying in a wide range, from 1/5 to 5 times median activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides available in the earth crust and the samples of popular building materials, such as concrete, pumice and gypsum, were tested, while the density of the tested samples changed in a wide range (from 860 up to 2,410kg/m³). The results obtained in the NaI(Tl) system were similar to those obtained with the HPGe spectrometer, mostly within the uncertainty range. This comparison shows that scintillation spectrometers equipped with a special software aimed to compensate for the lower spectral resolution of NaI(Tl) detectors can be successfully used for the radiation control of mass construction products.