Radioactivity standardization in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa's national radioactivity measurement standard is maintained at a satellite laboratory in Cape Town by the National Metrology Laboratory (NML) of the Council-for Scientific and Industrial Research. Standardizations are undertaken by a number of direct methods utilizing liquid scintillation counting (LSC). The successful application of LSC to the 4pibeta-gamma coincidence method is reviewed. The activity unit is maintained through radionuclide specific calibration factors relating to a pressurized re-entrant well type ionization chamber. A comparison is made between normalized factors given by the manufacturer and deduced factors obtained by a method used to transfer calibration factors from the International Reference System of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures based on the NML's own absolute standardizations.