Determination of very low levels of radioactivity

Abstract

This evaluation of techniques apparatus, and dedicated facilities for measurement of very low levels of radioactivity is addressed to the large community of researchers who use radioactive tracers, make activation analyses, etc. and may occasionally face the problem of measuring an activity well below the level accessible with standard commercial equipment. Emphasis is put on the instrumental gamma-spectrometric assay of complex mixtures of radionuclides, on the spectrometric measurements of alpha activities in relatively massive samples, and on counting spontaneous fission events in samples of large mass and/or volume. A list of institutions and agencies which are active in developing low-level counting methods is given. © 1994 IUPAC