Development of a low-level (37)Ar calibration standard

R M Williams; C E Aalseth; T W Bowyer; A R Day; E S Fuller; D A Haas; J C Hayes; E W Hoppe; P H Humble; M E Keillor; B D LaFerriere; E K Mace; J I McIntyre; H S Miley; A W Myers; J L Orrell; C T Overman; M E Panisko; A Seifert

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.12.027

Development of a low-level (37)Ar calibration standard

Appl Radiat Isot. 2016 Mar:109:430-434. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.12.027. Epub 2015 Dec 7.

Authors

R M Williams¹, C E Aalseth², T W Bowyer², A R Day², E S Fuller², D A Haas², J C Hayes², E W Hoppe², P H Humble², M E Keillor², B D LaFerriere², E K Mace², J I McIntyre², H S Miley², A W Myers², J L Orrell², C T Overman², M E Panisko², A Seifert²

Affiliations

¹ Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PO Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, USA. Electronic address: Richard.Williams@pnnl.gov.
² Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PO Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, USA.

PMID: 26701655
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.12.027

Abstract

Argon-37 is an environmental signature of an underground nuclear explosion. Producing and quantifying low-level (37)Ar standards is an important step in the development of sensitive field measurement instruments. This paper describes progress at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in developing a process to generate and quantify low-level (37)Ar standards, which can be used to calibrate sensitive field systems at activities consistent with soil background levels. This paper presents a discussion of the measurement analysis, along with assumptions and uncertainty estimates.

Keywords: Absolute radiation measurement; Electroformed copper; Length compensated proportional counting; Ultra low-background; Uncertainty analysis.