Evaluation of a draft standard on performance specifications for health physics instrumentation. Initial results for environmental tests

Conference · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:6057556

Kenoyer, J L; Swinth, K L; Kathren, R L; Selby, J M

The draft ANSI standard N42.17 on performance specifications for health physics instrumentation was written in 1981; the second draft of this standard is currently being evaluated by Pacific Northwest Laboratory. Objectives of this project include the evaluation of the applicability and practicality of the proposed standard and the determination of the degree of conformance of a cross section of currently available commercial instruments to the proposed standard. This standard is being tested against such instruments as ionization chambers, G.M. detectors, alpha survey meters, and neutron dose equivalent survey meters. Results on the use of the first two catagories will be presented in this paper. Procurement of instruments for testing was accomplished by direct purchase of off-the-shelf units and by loan from instrument manufacturers and others including DOE laboratories. The testing procedures were developed with emphasis on the requirements found in ANSI N42.17 with additional criteria from other draft and current ANSI and IEC standards. Details of procedures on effects of temperature, humidity, and ambient pressure, will be presented in this paper. Systems used to evaluate the performance of the instruments against the specifications of the draft standard include a large environmental chamber and a pressure-vacuum exposure chamber. Discussion on the results of the evaluation program will include the effect of temperature over the range of -20 to 50/sup 0/C, the effect of humidity over the range of 40 to 95% RH referenced to 0 to 40/sup 0/C, and the effect of ambient pressure over the range of 70 to 106 kPa. Discussions include the applicability and practicality of the draft standard and the conformance of the instrumentation evaluated to the environmental specifications of the proposed standard.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6057556
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-11055; CONF-830695-3; ON: DE83016169
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

440101* -- Radiation Instrumentation-- General Detectors or Monitors & Radiometric Instruments
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
EXPOSURE CHAMBERS
GEIGER-MUELLER COUNTERS
HUMIDITY
IONIZATION CHAMBERS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
RADIATION DETECTORS
STANDARDS
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
TESTING