A large HPGe detector for the non-destructive radioassay of an ultra-low-background counting facility

M Fechner; C Henson; J Gaffiot; T Lasserre; A Letourneau; D Lhuillier; G Mention; Th A Mueller; R Quéval; R Svoboda

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2011.01.037

A large HPGe detector for the non-destructive radioassay of an ultra-low-background counting facility

Appl Radiat Isot. 2011 Jul;69(7):1033-8. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2011.01.037. Epub 2011 Feb 3.

Authors

M Fechner¹, C Henson, J Gaffiot, T Lasserre, A Letourneau, D Lhuillier, G Mention, Th A Mueller, R Quéval, R Svoboda

Affiliation

¹ Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Centre de Saclay, IRFU/SPP, Gif-sur-Yvette, France. maximilien.fechner@cea.fr

PMID: 21316252
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2011.01.037

Abstract

We present the use of a low background counting facility, equipped with a p-type 80% relative efficiency HPGe detector, protected by active and passive shielding, and large enough to count a 10 in photo-multiplier tube (PMT). A GEANT4 Monte-Carlo of this detector was developed and tuned to 3% accuracy. We report the U, Th, and K content in three different types of PMTs used in current neutrino experiments, with accuracies of ~10ppb for U and Th and of ~15ppm for K.