Method and device for measuring gamma radiation

Abstract

A method and device for measuring peak gamma radiation is provided wherein the method includes the steps of determining a minimum and maximum number of counts within a preselected multiple channel energy spectrum measurement range, determining a channel having approximately one-half the number of maximum counts, determining a channel representing a background energy, computing a peak energy centroid channel, computing a channel to energy conversion factor and recomputing the boundry channels for the preselected multiple channel energy spectrum measurement range. An apparatus for measuring gamma radiation is also provided that includes a device for detecting gamma radiation emmissions and producing an electrical signal of a magnitude proportional to the level of energy of the emmision connected to a converter that transmits a digital word containing the emission energy level to a computer circuit that computes the number of emissions for specific energy level channels within a first set of channel boundaries and then calibrating new channel boundaries as a function of the number of emissions for the specific energy level channels within the first set of boundaries.