A METHOD FOR BETA-GAMMA HAND AND SHOE COUNTING UNDER VARYING BACKGROUND CONDITIONS

Technical Report · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1963

OSTI ID:4080398

Spear, W G

A method was developed for counting hands and shoes for beta-gamma emitting radionuclides under relatively high gamma background conditions. Operational conditions at many Hanford counter locations are such that the normal hand and shoe counter would be ineffective. This point of ineffective operation is usually reached when the gamma background exceeds 50 mu r/hr. Under such conditions, the usual counter cannot reliably detect a 10 nanocurie radium D-E-F test source as required at Hanford. The Hanford developed prototype instrument for betagamma counting of hands, shoes, and clothing employs scintillation detectors and solid-state circuits. A method of automatically compensating for the effect of gamma background levels up to 1 mr/hr is employed. The automatic compensation or subtraction feature provides reliable detection of the test source over a background variation from the natural level of 15 or 20 mu r/hr to the upper operational level of 1 mr/hr. The test source may be a point source or a source distributed on an approximate area of 25 in/sup 2/. A total of l0 background detection probes for hands, shoes, and background are employed along with one clothing contamination detector. (auth)

• Research Organization: General Electric Co. Hanford Atomic Products Operation, Richland, Wash.
• DOE Contract Number: AT(45-1)-1350
• NSA Number: NSA-18-014106
• OSTI ID: 4080398
• Report Number(s): HW-78956
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BACKGROUND
BETA DETECTION
BISMUTH 210
BODY
CIRCUITS
COUNTERS
GAMMA DETECTION
HAPO
HEALTH AND SAFETY
LEAD 210
LEVELS
PLANNING
POLONIUM 210
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIATION SOURCES
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
SERVOMECHANISMS
TEXTILES
VARIATIONS