Tritium Analysis in Urine by the Triple-to-Double Coincidence Ratio Method With the Hidex 300 Sl Liquid Scintillation Counter

Abstract

The triple-to-double coincidence ratio (TDCR) method is a liquid scintillation primary method for the absolute activity measurement of pure β− and pure electron capture emitters. This method requires specific three-photomultiplier liquid scintillation counters. The aim of the present work is to assess the TDCR method performance for routine tritium analysis in urine using an HIDEX 300 SL, the only three-photomultiplier liquid scintillation counter designed for routine laboratories. The physical parameters and the semi-empirical Birks parameter (kB) of the prepared liquid scintillation source were firstly determined. TDCR model equations solving and detection efficiencies calculations for measured samples were performed by TDCR07c computing program. Accuracy, uncertainties and detection limit of TDCR method were assessed through the tritium analysis of six intercomparison urine samples. The results demonstrate that the analytical performance of the TDCR method implemented on the HIDEX 300 SL is conform to the recommendations for the monitoring of workers exposed to tritium.

Time-domain based evaluation of detection efficiency in liquid scintillation counting

“…There are many quenching indicators depending on the manufacturer of the LSC analyzer, but they all rely on the analysis of the pulse-height spectrum of the sample acquired with an external gamma source. A recent study 15 has shown that the TDCR value can also be used as a quench indicating parameter. Here we present results of TDCR measurements of H and Fe in Ultima Gold cocktail with efficiency variation performed by means of grey filters.…”