Australian primary and secondary standard of activity: standardisation of F-18

Abstract

The Radiation Standards Project of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) maintains and disseminates the Australian primary and secondary standard for radioactivity measurements. Recently the Activity Standards Laboratories (ASL) participated in an international inter-comparison of the activity of F-18 coordinated by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK. At the national level this involved the development of both a primary and secondary standard of activity measurement. The technique employed to standardise this pure beta emitter by the ASL was 4πβ-γ Efficiency Tracing Method, using Co-60 as the tracer. A result within 0.1 % of the NPL comparison bench mark was obtained. In this paper details of the technique employed are described.