Re: Not getting what you paid for...

["Scott O. Schwahn" <schwahn@CEBAF.GOV>]

At 10:58 AM 4/16/96 -0500, you wrote:
>     Group,
>
>     I  have  a  friend (not at my facility) who has  received  a
>number  of  vials  of S-35 from a vender (unnamed  for  now)  and
>believes  that  he is being "short changed" in the amount  he  is
>receiving.

No - what you are really doing is making the assumption that if you do a
1000 to 1 dilution you will get 100,000 dpm/15 mL.  Your math just showed
you (correctly) that if you were to do such a dilution, you would need to
start out with about 0.5 mCi per vial.  Since you start out with 10X that
much, you would have to do a 10,000 to 1 (approximately) dilution to get
what you want.  You have to start with the manufacturer's decay-corrected
figure to come up with an appropriate dilution factor.

The only thing that should make you believe you were short-changed is an
actual measurement of the activity using the LSC. 

Scott O. Schwahn, CHP
Operational Health Physicist
Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility
(804)249-7551 (w)
(804)249-7363 (fax)
schwahn@cebaf.gov