Appropriateness of the minimum detectable activity in the analysis of gamma radionuclides is very important. This is reason determine the time factor among the conditions of the analysis when it is rationally determined has the advantage that radioactivity analysis can be performed accurately and quickly. In this study, 100 mL of an unknown sample was diluted in Marinelli Beaker 1L to obtain, review data on gamma radiation analysis results and minimum detectable activity for each measurement time. The measurement was used High Purity Germanium detector, target nuclides are Co-57, Co-58, Y-88 and Cs-137. Since the radioactivity analysis sample will be expected to be the waste subject to selfdisposal or less during the radioactive waste classification, the minimum detectable activity standard was set based on the detection of less than the permissible activity for self-disposal for each nuclide. The measurement methods were measured by classifying it into seven categories: 1000 seconds, 3600 seconds, 10000 seconds, 30000 seconds, 80000 seconds, 100000 seconds, and 150000 seconds. The radioactivity from this measurement are Co-57 2.89 Bq·g−1, Co-58 0.19 Bq·g−1, Y-88 0.20 Bq·g−1, Cs-137 0.15 Bq·g−1, the measurement results under all conditions were similar. On the other hand, the minimum detectable activity showed values above the allowable activity for self-disposal in not but Co-58 at 1000 and 3600 seconds. Only after taking the measurement time of 10000 seconds, the result was derived Co-57 0.0095 Bq·g−1, Co-58 0.0068 Bq·g−1, Y-88 0.0052 Bq·g−1, Cs-137 0.0062 Bq·g−1, which was confirmed to less than the allowable activity for self-disposal by nuclide. Reasonably determining the measurement time in gamma radionuclide analysis is a very important issue in terms of economy of time and accuracy of measurement. Although this study cannot be said to be able to determine a reasonable measurement time for all gamma radionuclide analysis, it is hoped that research on various samples will be made to contribute to the efficient measurement of gamma radioactivity.

Odyssey, one of the NASA’s Mars exploration program and SELENE (Kaguya), a Japanese lunar orbiting spacecraft have a payload of Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) for analyzing radioactive chemical elements of the atmosphere and the surface. In these days, gamma-ray spectroscopy with a High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector has been widely used for the activity measurements of natural radionuclides contained in the soil of the Earth. The energy spectra obtained by the HPGe detectors have been generally analyzed by means of the Window Analysis (WA) method. In this method, activity concentrations are determined by using the net counts of energy window around individual peaks. Meanwhile, an alternative method, the so-called Full Spectrum Analysis (FSA) method uses count numbers not only from full-absorption peaks but from the contributions of Compton scattering due to gamma-rays. Consequently, while it takes a substantial time to obtain a statistically significant result in the WA method, the FSA method requires a much shorter time to reach the same level of the statistical significance. This study shows the validation results of FSA method. We have compared the concentration of radioactivity of 40K, 232Th and 238U in the soil measured by the WA method and the FSA method, respectively. The gamma-ray spectrum of reference materials (RGU and RGTh, KCl) and soil samples were measured by the 120% HPGe detector with cosmic muon veto detector. According to the comparison result of activity concentrations between the FSA and the WA, we could conclude that FSA method is validated against the WA method. This study implies that the FSA method can be used in a harsh measurement environment, such as the gamma-ray measurement in the Moon, in which the level of statistical significance is usually required in a much shorter data acquisition time than the WA method.