Pa-234 and -234m Specrtra

[Steve Dubyk]

Attached is a simple experiment to expose the weak and reclusive spectra from Pa-234 and Pa-234m, the later being a key indicator of the presence of U238.

Steve Dubyk

[pietkuip]

I have not looked into Theremino yet, but I find the statistical noise in those curves a bit strange. In the last spectrum in the .pdf, that 1001 keV seems a bit too narrow for a NaI detector.

[Steve Dubyk]

Pieter, thank you for noticing that, I did also. The Theremino program uses a recursive deconvolution algorithm and I suspect that is the reason for the unusually sharp peak at 1001 keV and also the noise. Additionally, I reduced the peak equalizers in the program for all energy levels other than the 1 MeV range, so that likely affects the graph also.

Steve Dubyk