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Successful participation in the EURAMET comparison for radon-222 within the scope of the EMPIR project MetroRADON

20.12.2019

After 10 years, the first successful absolute comparison of gaseous radon-222 activity standards has been achieved together with participants from 8 countries. Under the auspices of the LNHB (France), the radon-222 gas activities provided by the LNHB were determined absolutely and the results were compared. PTB participated in this comparison with two methods: a primary method, based on alpha spectrometry under a defined solid angle, and a secondary method, based on a calibrated NaI2 detector system.

Within the scope of an EMPIR project entitled MetroRADON, a comparison registered at EURAMET took place together with participants from 8 countries. Under the auspices of the LNHB (France), the radon-222 gas activities provided by the LNHB were determined absolutely and the results were compared. PTB participated in this comparison with two methods: a primary method, based on alpha spectrometry under a defined solid angle, and a secondary method, based on a calibrated NaI2 detector system. Both methods provided identical results within the uncertainties. This impressively demonstrates the stability of the systems, which had not been able to participate in any comparison for more than 10 years.

The agreement between the comparison reference value (power moderated mean), the value of the pilot lab and the PTB value is within 5 ‰. The uncertainty of the PTB value is smaller than 1 % (k=1).

Contact persons at PTB:
Opens window for sending emailA. Honig, Department 6.1, Working Group 6.13

Opens window for sending emailS. Röttger, Department 6.1, Working Group 6.13