(514.007 keV),
137
Cs (661.657 keV),
88
Y (898.042 keV; 1836.063 keV),
and
60
Co (1173.228 keV; 1332.492 keV)) having homogeneously distributed activity with the same volume and shape as the Marinelli
beakers containing the samples was used for detector energy calibration and efficiency determination, and the same procedure was
applied to the sample activity determination. The minimum detectable activity (MDA) for the γ-ray measurement system, at 95%
confidence level was calculated (0.7 Bq/kg for
226
Ra, 0.8 Bq/kg for
232
Th, and 2.4 Bq/kg for
40
K) according to the procedure followed by
Khandaker et al. (2012a). Each sample was counted for 12 h and
background counts for the samecounting time were deducted to
obtain the net activity.Table 3represents the situation, note being
made that some radionuclideγ-ray emission lines cannot be completely resolved by this or other typical HPGe detectors. As an
example, there is a probability of overlap of the 238.63 keVγ-line of
212
Pb and the 241.98 keV γ-line of
214
Pb. In such situations, the
emissions were separated following the procedure given in
Khandaker et al. (2012b). However, in order to reduce the error in
activity determination, only strong and independent characteristic
gamma lines (the γ-rays highlighted in bold in Table 3)ofthe
respective radionuclides were used to determine the net activity
concentrations