Development and Performance of a Multipurpose System for the Environmental Radiation Survey Based on a LaBr3(Ce) Detector

For the purpose of diverse utilizations of environmental radiation surveys based on ground-based and mobile gamma-ray spectrometry, a multipurpose system equipped with two LaBr₃(Ce) detectors was developed to efficiently collect comprehensive results with consistent data. This system can be simply mounted on a tripod, backpack, or airborne systems by using brackets for multipurpose use. Its performance with respect to consistency in diverse survey platforms was evaluated in a well-characterized site with the use of an HPGe detector to compare the survey results of the ambient dose rate and the dose rates of six detected natural radionuclides. A good agreement was achieved among the results of the HPGe detector and the developed multipurpose system with two kinds of survey platforms, such as tripods and backpack surveys. In addition, an airborne survey that used a drone equipped with the multipurpose system was conducted at various survey heights above the site of which ¹³⁷Cs was distributed on the ground. All of the survey results of the dose rate were corrected to those 1 m above the ground, and the data consistency of the ambient dose rate and dose rate of ¹³⁷Cs were kept for survey heights.