Effect of environmental variables upon in-situ gamma spectrometry data

The Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) is a US Department of Energy site that is undergoing total remediation and closure. Fernald is a former uranium refinery which produced high quality uranium metal. Soil in the Fernald site is pervasively contaminated with uranium and secondarily with thorium and radium isotopes. In-situ gamma spectrometry is routinely utilized in soil excavation operations at Fernald to provide high quality and timely analytical data on radionuclide contaminants in soil. To understand the effect of environmental conditions upon in-situ gamma spectrometry measurements, twice daily measurements were made, weather permitting, with a tripod-mounted high purity germanium detector (HPGe) at a single field location (field quality control station) at the Fernald Environmental Management Project. Such measurements are the field analogue of a laboratory control standard. The basic concept is that measurement variations over an extended period of time at a single location can be related to environmental parameters. Trends, peaks, and troughs in data might be correlative to both long-term and short-term environmental conditions. In this paper environmental variables/ conditions refer to weather related phenomena such as soil moisture, rainfall, atmospheric humidity, and atmospheric temperature