Nuclide ratios and source identification from high-resolution gamma-ray spectra with Bayesian decision methods

Zähringer, Matthias; Kirchner, Gerald

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2008.06.044

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…This is how we name the Bayesian approach implemented in [6] by Zähringer & Kirchner, who classically consider that if no other information is available, the Heaviside step function can be used as prior to reflect the basic fact that the true activity cannot be negative [9]:…”

Section: Improper Prior Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Bayesian method with empirically fitted priors for the evaluation of environmental radioactivity: application to low-level radioxenon measurements

Rivals

Clément

Euvrard

et al. 2011

J Radioanal Nucl Chem

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To cite this version:Isabelle Rivals, Clément Fabbri, Guillaume Euvrard, Xavier Blanchard. A Bayesian method with empirically fitted priors for the evaluation of environmental radioactivity: application to low-level radioxenon measurements. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Springer Verlag, 2012, 292 (1) Corresponding author: Isabelle RivalsAbstract The decision that a given detection level corresponds to the effective presence of a radionuclide is still widely made on the basis of a classic hypothesis test. However, the classic framework suffers several drawbacks, such as the conceptual and practical impossibility to provide a probability of zero radioactivity, and confidence intervals for the true activity level that are likely to contain negative and hence meaningless values. The Bayesian framework being potentially able to overcome these drawbacks, several attempts have recently been made to apply it to this decision problem. Here, we present a new Bayesian method that, unlike the previous ones, presents two major advantages together. First, it provides an estimate of the probability of no radioactivity, as well as physically meaningful point and interval estimates for the true radioactivity level. Second, whereas Bayesian approaches are often controversial because of the arbitrary choice of the priors they use, the proposed method permits to estimate the parameters of the prior density of radioactivity by fitting its marginal distribution to previously recorded activity data. The new scheme is first mathematically developed. Then, it is applied to the detection of radioxenon isotopes in noble gas measurement stations of the International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

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Section: Improper Prior Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to (6), since f(x|µ) = 1/) *((x-µ)/)), the a posteriori probability of H 0 is always of the form:…”

Section: Appendix: Bayesian Estimates For the Proposed Priorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bayesian method with empirically fitted priors for the evaluation of environmental radioactivity: application to low-level radioxenon measurements

Rivals

Clément

Euvrard

et al. 2011

J Radioanal Nucl Chem

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“…measurement, are 600 mBq for 131m Xe, 10 mBq for 133 Xe, 132 mBq for 133m Xe and 47 mBq for 135 Xe if only gamma peaks are used for analysis. If only X-rays are present in the spectrum, probabilities for the occurrence of 131m Xe and 133m Xe can be given, based on a Bayesian statistical analysis (ZÄ HRINGER and KIRCHNER, 2008).…”

Section: Measurement Of Radioxenon Activity Concentrationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten Years of Development of Equipment for Measurement of Atmospheric Radioactive Xenon for the Verification of the CTBT

Auer

Kumberg

Sartorius

et al. 2010

Pure Appl. Geophys.

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Atmospheric measurement of radioactive xenon isotopes (radioxenon) plays a key role in remote monitoring of nuclear explosions, since it has a high capability to capture radioactive debris for a wide range of explosion scenarios. It is therefore a powerful tool in providing evidence for nuclear testing, and is one of the key components of the verification regime of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The reliability of this method is largely based on a well-developed measurement technology. In the 1990s, with the prospect of the build-up of a monitoring network for the CTBT, new development of radioxenon equipment started. This article summarizes the physical and technical principles upon which the radioxenon technology is based and the advances the technology has undergone during the last 10 years. In contrast to previously used equipment, which was manually operated, the new generation of radioxenon monitoring equipment is designed for automated and continuous operation in remote field locations. Also the analytical capabilities of the equipment were strongly enhanced. Minimum detectable concentrations of the recently developed systems are well below 1 mBq/ m 3 for the key nuclide 133 Xe for sampling periods between 8 and 24 h. All the systems described here are also able to separately measure with low detection limits the radioxenon isotopes 131m Xe, 133m Xe and 135 Xe, which are also relevant for the detection of nuclear tests. The equipment has been extensively tested during recent years by operation in a laboratory environment and in field locations, by performing comparison measurements with laboratory type equipment and by parallel operation. These tests demonstrate that the equipment has reached a sufficiently high technical standard for deployment in the global CTBT verification regime.

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“…A more detailed discussion is found elsewhere (Zä hringer and Kirchner, 2008) referring to gamma-spectrometric analyses. The generalisation to other spectrometric techniques is straightforward.…”

Section: Statistical Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, we proposed a statistical methodology (Zä hringer and Kirchner, 2008) which is based on a Bayesian approach and allows combining the information gained from a spectrometric measurement with other knowledge available, e.g. on isotope ratios.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new approach to estimate nuclide ratios from measurements with activities close to background

Kirchner

Steiner

Zähringer

2009

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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Nuclide ratios and source identification from high-resolution gamma-ray spectra with Bayesian decision methods

Cited by 19 publications

References 12 publications

A Bayesian method with empirically fitted priors for the evaluation of environmental radioactivity: application to low-level radioxenon measurements

A Bayesian method with empirically fitted priors for the evaluation of environmental radioactivity: application to low-level radioxenon measurements

Ten Years of Development of Equipment for Measurement of Atmospheric Radioactive Xenon for the Verification of the CTBT

A new approach to estimate nuclide ratios from measurements with activities close to background

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