Assessment of a compton-suppressed spectrometer for measurement of radioactive xenon isotopes

Airborne radionuclide monitoring is considered to be the most certain way to detect a clandestine nuclear weapon test. The activity concentration of radioxenon samples collected by the radionuclide stations of the International Monitoring System (IMS) for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is generally performed at the low-level, hence it is necessary to improve the detection sensitivity of the radioactivity measuring apparatus for radionuclide monitoring. The Compton-suppressed spectrometer (CSS) has the advantage of reducing the background and improving the sensitivity in the environmental level measurement. Therefore, the measurement of the relevant radioxenon sample at the environmental level is feasible by using CSS. To assess the performance of CSS for radioxenon measurements, the Compton-suppressed and unsuppressed spectra of the 133Xe and 127Xe samples have been acquired, and subsequently, the information of the full energy peaks (FEP) in the spectra were compared. The assessment indicates that CSS can provide high sensitivity, simple operation, and straightforward activity determination, and it can be regarded as an appropriate apparatus in the radioxenon measurement. •133Xe and 127Xe samples were measured using Compton-suppressed spectrometer.•Full energy peaks of radioxenon isotopes were more prominent in Compton-suppressed spectrum.•The sensitivity to the radioxenon measurement was assessed for Compton-suppressed spectrum.