Nikulin, M.S., Novak, M.M., Smirnov, T.I., Voinov, V.G. and Krasnov, G.I. (2001) A probabilistic description of radioactive contamination: a multivariate model. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 54(2), pp. 355-363. ISSN (print) 0969-8043

Abstract

A multivariate discrete probability model is used to facilitate the description of gamma-ray spectroscopic data obtained from radioactively contaminated territory, east of the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. Two possible estimators of probabilities of interest have been considered: maximum likelihood and unbiased estimators. We show that unbiased estimators are much easier to compute. The model was used in two variants: (i) several radionuclides in spatially independent measurements, (ii) a single radionuclide in spatially dependent measurements. We show that, in both cases, it is important to take into account the correlation for the accurate evaluation of probabilities of interest.

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