IAEA Nuclear energy series. Radioelement mapping / Серия статей МАГАТЭ по ядерной энергетике. Составление карт радиоэлементов

Geochemical and gamma ray surveys have been used for many years by those exploring for uranium. However, with the development of spectrometers in the 1960s, the scope of the gamma ray method was expanded to include geological and environmental mapping. As national coverage of gamma ray spectrometric data grew, it soon became evident that unless the acquisition, calibration and data processing procedures were standardized, it would be difficult to either merge data from different surveys, or make meaningful comparisons between surveys. Similar problems affect sample based geochemical surveys. A lack of standards has lead to inconsistencies between surveys. The IAEA has been instrumental in the establishment of gamma ray spectrometric standards over several decades. Modern surveys complying with these standards are referenced to a global radioelement baseline. Darnley et al. described standards for the development of a global geochemical database [1].<...>