Background reduction by Cu/Pb shielding and efficiency study of NaI(TI) detector

The background spectrum of a $3^{{\prime}{\prime}}{\times}3^{{\prime}{\prime}}$ NaI(Tl) well-type scintillation SILENA detector was measured without shielding, in 6 cm thick lead shielding, and with 2 mm thick electrolytic copper covering the detector inside the lead shielding. The relative remaining background of the lead shield lined with copper was found to be ideal for low-level environmental radioactive spectroscopy. The background total count rate in the (20-2160 KeV) was reduced 28.7 times by the lead and 29 times by the Cu + Pb shielding. The effective reduction of background (1.04) by the copper mainly appeared in the energy range from X-ray up to 500 KeV, while for the total energy range the ratio is 1.01 relative to the lead only. In addition, a strong relation between the full-energy peak absolute efficiency and the detector well height was found using gamma-ray isotropic radiation point sources placed inside the detector well. The full-energy peak efficiency at a midpoint of the well (at 2.5 cm) is three times greater than that on the detector surface. The energy calibrations and the resolution of any single energy line are independent of the locations of the gamma source inside or outside of the well.