TDCR and CIEMAT/NIST liquid scintillation methods applied to the radionuclide metrology

Abstract

This work presents TDCR and CIEMAT/NIST methods of liquid scintillation implemented in National Institutes of Metrology for activity standardization of radionuclides, which decay by beta emission and electron capture. The computer codes used to calculate the detection efficiency take into account: decay schemes, beta decay theory, quenching parameter evaluation, Poisson statistic model and Monte Carlo simulation for photon and particle interactions in the detection system. Measurements were performed for pure emitters 3H, 14C, 99Tc and for 68Ge/68Ga which decay by electron capture and positron emission, with uncertainties smaller than 1% (k = 1).