Nuclear Chemistry Laboratory
Laboratory Equipment
The following equipment is used by the NCL to analyze samples. Data from the equipment is transferred, stored, and analyzed using an integrated computer system.
| Instrumentation | Analysis |
| Liquid Scintillation Counters | Tritium |
| (Packard Tri-Carb 3170/TR) | Wipes |
| 222Rn in water | |
| 99Technetium | |
| Hyper-pure Germanium | Isotopic Gamma-rays |
| NaI | In-vivo Thyroid |
| Gas Proportional Counters | Gross Alpha |
| (Canberra Model XLB5) | Gross Beta |
| Tritium | |
| Isotopic Strontium | |
| Lucas cell counters | 226Ra |
| (Ludlum Model 182) | 222Rn in air |
| Silicon Surface Barrier | Isotopic Uranium |
| Detectors for Alpha | Isotopic Plutonium |
| Spectroscopy | Isotopic Polonium |
The intrinsic germanium well detector allows for the measurement of low-energy gamma-rays.
A method developed for the determination of radium isotopes (224Ra, 226Ra, 228Ra) in drinking waters was described in the journal Health Physics. [Parekh, et al., Health Phys. 85(5): 613-620; 2003
Evaporation of liquids for the Gross Alpha analysis is monitored to assure even distribution of the precipitates. [Semkow et al., Appl. Rad. Isot. 60, 879 (2004)]
During construction of the facility housing the NCL, a low-background chamber was built from 6" thick pre-World War II battleship steel.