Experimental determination of the self-absorption factor for MTR plates by passive gamma spectrometric measurement

The measurement of the absolute activity or the mass of radioactive substances by gamma spectrometry needs to include a correction for the radiation absorption inside the source volume, the so-called self-absorption factor. It depends on geometry and material composition of the source, the detector geometry and on the geometrical arrangement of source and gamma radiation detector; it can be calculated if full information about all that is available. This article however describes how to determine the self-absorption factor from measurements if the radiation sources are plates of uranium fuel with typical parameters of nuclear fuel for MTR reactors and without using detail information on the source geometry, thus allowing easy inspection without relying on – potentially falsified – declarations on the internal properties of the fuel objects and without calculation.