Computational generation of tailored radionuclide libraries for alpha-particle and gamma-ray spectrometry

Abstract

Radionuclide identification is a radioanalytical method employed in various scientific disciplines that utilize alpha-particle or gamma-ray spectrometric assays, ranging from astrophysics to nuclear medicine. Radionuclide libraries in conventional radionuclide identification systems are crafted in a manual fashion, accompanying labor-intensive and error-prone user tasks and hindering library customization. This research presents a computational algorithm and the architecture of its dedicated software that can automatically generate tailored radionuclide libraries. Progenitor-progeny recurrence relations were modeled to enable recursive computation of radionuclide subsets. This theoretical concept was incorporated into open-source software called and validated against four actinide decay series and 12 radioactive substances, including a uranium-glazed legacy Fiestaware, natural uranium and thorium sources, a Ra226 sample, and the medical radionuclides Ac225, Lu177, and Tc99m. The developed algorithm yielded radionuclide libraries for all the tested specimens within minutes, demonstrating its efficiency and applicability across diverse scenarios. The proposed approach introduces a framework for computerized radionuclide library generation, thereby trivializing library-driven radionuclide identification and facilitating the spectral recognition of unregistered radionuclides in radiation spectrometry. Published by the American Physical Society 2024