[ RadSafe ] Matching Backgrounds for Gamma Count Rates

[Mccormick, Luke I]

With clearance values as stupidly low as they are, most of the time you
need to take a background measurement. Only at one spot have I found the
entire building crapped up. There is usually at least 1 room you can get a
reasonable bkgd from. Yes, true bkgd will vary room to room but as long as
you are using the MARSSIM methodology you can get by. Remember for
clearance purposes, background is the upper 95% confidence limit value of
what you measured, not the mean value. If you use the mean you have just
assumed 50% of your measurements are above background.

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject:    [ RadSafe ] Matching Backgrounds for Gamma Count Rates
Author:     radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl
Date:       8/18/2005 12:12 AM




       For building or lab closure surveys, I rarely have pre-op gamma
       count rate
       measurements for comparison.  To try and find a "matching"
       location to  obtain
       gamma backgrounds is next to impossible.  As previously
       discussed  here, gamma
       count rates vary widely.  I would be interested in hearing how
       others have
       handled this problem.

       Joel I. Cehn, CHP
       _joelc at alum.wpi.edu_ (mailto:joelc at alum.wpi.edu)

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