GM Counters in High Backgrounds

["Pollan, Paul B." <PBPOLLAN@southernco.com>]

I am working to settle a debate among the masses (Utility and Contract HP
Technicians):

Scenario:  Eberline E-140 with an HP-210 probe set up in a shielded
configuration in lower levels of a PWR Containment during 	    Outage.
The meter/probe combination is 10% efficient. The background is still
1000cpm/probe area.  

Question:  If a disk smear with a 100cm2 smeared area reads 1500cpm/scan in
the shielded configuration as mentioned above, 	    what would the smear
actually read if the smear was moved to a low background area (e.g., 50cpm
background) and 	    counted with the same type of instrument/probe
setup?

 

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