Library of radioisotope identifier spectra

We have measured spectra with good statistics from many common industrial and medical radioisotopes by using a variety of commercially available radioisotope identifiers and have assembled them into a comprehensive computer library. The identifiers used included the ORTEC Detective and ORTEC Detective EX, Target identiFINDER (LaBr3 and NaI), SAIC Exploranium GR-135, and Thermo Electron Interceptor. A library of spectra is useful, for example, when an identifier algorithm is unable to correctly identify the isotope(s) present with high confidence, and manual analysis is therefore required. An identifier may not be able to correctly identify an isotope because of problems like unresolved peaks, pileup, backscatter peaks, Compton edges, and incorrect calibration, and we discuss and compare some of these features in specific identifiers. Sources in our library include ¹³³Ba, ¹⁰⁹Cd, ⁵⁷Co, ⁶⁰Co, ¹³⁴Cs, ¹³⁷Cs, ¹⁵²Eu, ¹⁵⁴Eu, ¹⁵³Gd, ^166mHo, ¹³¹I, ^177mLu, ⁵⁴Mn, ²²Na, ²²⁶Ra, ¹¹³Sn, ²²⁸Th, ⁸⁸Y, and ⁶⁵Zn, but new sources and identifiers are continually added as they become available. The library contains measurement parameters such as the calibration parameters, run time, live time, source strength, and source-to-detector distance. Spectra are saved in the international standard format. SPE, which can be read by many commercial multichannel analyzer software programs. Spectra from the library can be visually compared with an unknown spectrum using these software programs to manually identify the radioisotope. This library of spectra is expected to become a valuable asset for the identifier community.