An intercomparison of software for processing Ge γ-ray spectra

An intercomparison of software for the analysis of γ-ray spectra from Ge detectors was carried out by testing the quality of calculated areas and associated uncertainties of well-isolated single peaks from IAEA test spectra. The results of the intercomparison show that the quality of results from γ-spectrometric analyses of radionuclides providing well-isolated single peaks (e.g. 137Cs) vary significantly between software packages. The results furthermore indicate significant effects on the quality from the user of the software. The intercomparison comprised tests of precision and accuracy, and permitted a ranking of the results according to accuracy. Fifteen sets of data were submitted for the intercomparison involving ten software packages. Only four of the 15 data sets showed both acceptable precision and accuracy, and the accuracies of the other data sets were tested against the results of one of these sets to provide a ranking between the data sets. Seven data sets show high accuracy, five data sets show average accuracy and three data sets show low accuracy. Generally, the data sets based on sophisticated methods for calculating peak areas (e.g. peak fitting) do not show higher accuracy than those based on more simple methods.