MDA Equations -Reply

[FRAMEP@ORAU.GOV]

Art ,It sounds like your time window is too narrow for the following to be
of much help, but let me recommend:

The draft NUREG 1507 "Minimum Detectable Concentrations with Typical
Radiation Survey Instruments for Various Contaminants and Field
Conditions" by AM Huffert, E W Abelquist, and WS Brown.

It contains an excellent discussion of this very issue and it includes
extensive analyses of the effects of such things as back scattering
material, self absorption, source distribution etc.

The NUREG is specifically being produced in support of MARSSIM, but it
should be of substantial general interest to the health physics community.
I just spoke with Eric Abelquist and the hope is that the final version
should be available from the NRC as early as December, but not much
later than February or so. If you are interested, I could fax you a few
selected parts of the draft version.

Paul Frame
Professional Training programs
ORISE
framep@orau.gov