Underground measurements of radioactivity

The exceptional sensitivity of gamma-ray spectrometry in underground laboratories has increasing application because of the important science and technology that it allows to be studied. Early work focussed on rare fundamental phenomena, e.g. double beta decay, but a growing number of underground measurements is being performed in fields such as environmental monitoring, surveillance of nuclear activities, benchmarking of other physical techniques and materials selection for equipment which require materials with extremely low levels of radioactivity. This report describes the state of the art in underground gamma-ray spectrometry. Backgrounds of HPGe-detectors at various underground laboratories are presented and compared. Improved techniques and detectors are described and needs of deep underground facilities for higher sensitivity measurements are discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.