A method for Removing Surface Contamination on Ultra-pure Copper Spectrometer Components
Spectrometers for the lowest-level radiometric measurements require materials of extreme radiopurity. Measurements of rare nuclear decays, e.g. neutrinoless double-beta decay, can require construction and shielding materials with bulk radiopurity reaching one micro-Becquerel per kilogram or less. When such extreme material purity is achieved, surface contamination, particularly solid daughters in the natural radon decay chains, can become the limiting background. High-purity copper is an important material for ultra-low-background spectrometers and thus is the focus of this work. A method for removing surface contamination at very low levels without attacking the bulk material is described. An assay method using a low-background proportional counter made of the material under examination is employed, and the resulting preliminary result of achievable surface contamination levels is presented.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 936203
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-49352; JRNCDM; NN2001000; TRN: US0805431
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 276(3):645-650, Vol. 276, Issue 3; ISSN 0236-5731
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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