NIST Technical Note 1916 

Methods for characterizing a 

radiation detector for specifying 

radiation fields during testing 

against standards for homeland 

security applications 

A. L. Sallaska

L. Pibida

B. Minniti

C. M. O’Brien 

This publication is available free of charge from:

http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1916
NIST Technical Note 1916 

Methods for characterizing a 

radiation detector for specifying 

radiation fields during testing 

against standards for homeland 

security applications 

A. L. Sallaska

L. Pibida

B. Minniti

C. M. O’Brien 

Radiation Physics Division 

Physical Measurement Laboratory

This publication is available free of charge from: 

http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1916 

April 2016 

U.S. Department of Commerce 

Penny Pritzker, Secretary

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Willie May, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director
Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this 

 document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. 

Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the 

entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose. 

National Institute of Standards and Technology Technical Note 1916

Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Tech. Note 1916, 14 pages (April 2016) 

CODEN: NTNOEF 

This publication is available free of charge from: 

http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1916
1

Methods for characterizing a radiation detector for specifying radiation fields 

during testing against standards for homeland security applications 

A. L. Sallaska, L. Pibida†, R. Minniti, and M. O’Brien

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 

Abstract 

A wide variability exists among commercial radiation detection instruments used to measure exposure 

rate or ambient dose equivalent rate. These instruments are used to measure both the radiation 

background and the radiation field produced by radioactive sources that are used to test other types of 

radiation detection systems against different consensus document standards. Most radiation fields 

specified in the ANSI standard are quite low, ranging from 0.05 μSv/h to 0.5 μSv/h above background. 

Due to the radiation fields being so low in intensity, the uncertainty of the measurements made with 

these instruments can be potentially quite large. As a result of these large uncertainties, it is possible 

that the response of the various parameters being tested by the standards (e.g., alarm indication, 

radionuclide identification) will be dependent on the specific radiation detector employed by the testing 

laboratory. In this work, we used two different methods to set the radiation fields to analyze the 

differences that can be expected. One method is based on measurements performed with a high 

pressure ion chamber while the second method is based on calculating the radiation fields from a known 

source activity using a point source estimate. The sources of uncertainties in both methods are 

identified and are reflected in the differences that can be expected in setting the radiation fields. In 

order to achieve consistency across different testing laboratories in setting radiation fields, we provide 

insight to what are the most relevant factors that affect the determination of the field using either one 

of the two methods. 

Keywords: radiation detection for homeland security, ANSI N42 standards, testing of radiation 

detection equipment 

† Corresponding author: leticia.pibida@nist.gov
2

1. Introduction 

In order to safeguard the country against trafficking of illicit nuclear and radiological material, both 

national and international documentary standards have been developed to ensure the adequate 

performance of commercially available radiation detection instruments. Testing of radiation detection 

instruments against standards should provide realistic expectations of the devices’ capabilities to 

governments and first responders. Currently, the American National Standards Institute/Institute of 

Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ANSI/IEEE) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 

each have eight published standards for homeland security applications encompassing a myriad of 

detection equipment types [1 – 16]. Although some measurement systems identify radionuclides, all 

systems measure the magnitude of the radiation field in some form (e.g., μR/h, μSv/h, counts/s, unitless)1

.

In order to test different types of radiation detection systems, some standards specify the values to be 

used for the exposure rate or ambient dose equivalent rate (instead of the source activity) in order to 

provide the laboratories with the flexibility to use their current sources at a distance that provides the 

required field strength. Therefore, independent knowledge of the radiation field and its associated 

uncertainty is paramount. If the radiation field from the background or a radiation source is not 

measured accurately, an instrument under test may pass the standard requirements in one laboratory 

and fail in another. Clearly, this is unacceptable, and a robust method for measuring the various 

intensities of the radiation fields is needed.

As discussed in Ref [17], it has been difficult to reach a consensus among the different standards 

working groups on how to specify and measure these radiation fields. In regard to the latter, there is 

also no consensus as to the quantity to be measured, generally given as exposure rate (in units of μR/h) 

or ambient dose equivalent rate (in units of μSv/h). The work presented in Ref. [17] explored the 

variability of determining the radiation field with three commercially available radiation monitors and 

compared the rates to theoretical calculations. The data indicated that the choice of equipment has a 

significant impact on the measured values, as the spread in results for the respective trials typically 

ranged from 10 % to 50 %. To expand the data from Ref. [17], an additional radiation monitor, the 

model GE RSS-131ER, was used to perform measurements with identical test configurations and 

radiation sources as previously done. Supplementary trials at multiple distances (and, hence, radiation 

fields) and heights were also examined. 

2. Measurements 

The exposure rate produced by the radiation field was measured using a high pressure ion chamber 

(HPIC) model GE RSS-131ER2. Encased in a 31 cm × 31 cm × 36 cm aluminum enclosure, this unit 

 

1 NIST does not endorse the use of non-SI units. This paper uses non-SI units because it addresses the 

requirements listed in the ANSI/IEEE published standards.

2 Certain commercial equipment, instruments, or materials are identified in this paper to foster understanding. 

Such identification does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and 

Technology, nor does it imply that the materials or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the 

purpose.
3

contains 2533 kPa (25 atmospheres) of argon in a 25.4 cm-diameter stainless steel sphere (wall 

thickness of 3.2 mm) and has the capability to measure exposure rates from background levels up to 

100 R/h. This radiation monitor has the ability to operate independently (not connected to a PC) in a 

range of different surroundings, and data files (consisting of time stamped exposure rate or count rate 

data) produced by the HPIC may be later downloaded to a computer after the measurements are 

completed. The acquired data may also be observed in real time if the HPIC is connected to an external 

computer. The software used to download the data from the HPIC to the PC is version 6.1. In addition to 

monitoring exposure rate, the instrument has the ability to generate environmental information such as 

wind-speed and ambient temperature. From the response curve given in the manual, the detector’s 

cutoff energy is approximately 50 keV, where the response is ≈ 10 % of its relatively constant value 

between 300 keV and 10 MeV.

Three different sets of radiation exposure rate measurements were made: 

1) with the HPIC centered at a distance of 1 m from the source (the distance tested in Ref. [17]),

2) with the HPIC centered at distances from the source that were calculated to produce fields of 5 μR/h, 

10 μR/h, and 50 μR/h, and 

3) with the HPIC at offsets up to 6.4 cm from center of the HPIC to test the monitor’s sensitivity to 

offset. 

Ten independent exposure rate measurements were recorded for each data set. Tests at a source-todetector distance of 1 m were acquired with three different integration times: 10 s, 60 s, and 300 s. All 

other tests were conducted with the 60 s integration time only. Reported uncertainties are expanded for 

a coverage factor of k = 2, unless otherwise noted.

Exposure rate measurements were acquired in a low-scatter room with sources mounted in a 

polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) holder. The holder was placed on a precision track that allows 

repositioning the source within 0.1 mm, and there is no additional source shielding from the holder. The 

instrument was positioned on a laboratory jack approximately 60 cm above the track so the height could 

be adjusted and aligned with the source center. The radionuclides utilized for these tests are listed in 

Table 1. Sources are encapsulated in 0.25 mm thick stainless steel, the fabrication is described in Refs. 

[18] and [19].

Table 1: Source activities at the time of the radiation field measurements. The relative standard 

uncertainty of each activity is 5 %. Data were taken over the course of 19 days, during which these 

values varied by less than 0.5 % due to the long half-life of the isotopes.

Radionuclide Activity (kBq)

241Am 1882

133Ba 3019

60Co 1119

137Cs 2556

226Ra 294

232Th 550

232U 463
4

The energy response of the instrument is not entirely constant, and therefore all measured exposure 

rate data needs to be corrected for the detector’s energy response. The instrument manual provides 

correction factors, relative to 226Ra, as follows: 0.507 for 241Am, 0.980 for 60Co, and 1.002 for 137Cs. It 

should be noted, however, that the manual (revision R, March 2014) incorrectly describes how to apply 

these factors (by multiplying the reading, rather than dividing). Using these data and other data given in 

the manual, values of 1.235 for 133Ba, 1.032 for 232Th, and 1.014 for 232U were obtained from a fit of a 

sixth degree polynomial, shown in Fig. 1 as a function of gamma-ray energy. These values were obtained 

from the weighted response for all the gamma-ray energies (with energies greater than 50 keV). It 

should be noted that the 232Th source exhibits some self-attenuation at energies less than ≈ 390 keV. 

This effect was measured with a high-purity germanium detector and used as an additional weighting

factor in calculating the average energy, lowering its value by 12 %. This increased the correction factor 

for this source by less than 2 %.

Figure 1: Detector relative response obtained from data reported in the instrument manual and from 

measurements made in the NIST reference radiation beam. The detector response data from the 

manual, which does not include any uncertainties, are relative to 226Ra. The fit to the data from the 

instrument manual and the NIST measurements are also shown.

The accuracy of the correction factors provided in the manual were compared against seven reference 

beams at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), using 137Cs, 60Co, and x-rays at 

different exposure rates. For most beam quality and calibration rates, multiple sets of 10 readings were 

recorded, as well as their respective means and standard deviations. The weighted average of these 

values was calculated and its uncertainty was combined with the uncertainty in the beam calibration at 
5

the specified rate. Then for each beam energy, the mean and standard deviation among the various 

rates was determined using the weighted average at each rate. These values are also shown in Fig. 1.

The 137Cs beams produced exposure rates of 0.286 mR/h, 7.146 mR/h, 42.85 mR/h, and 127.4 mR/h with 

associated relative expanded uncertainties of 1 % (k = 2) and for source-to-detector (center) distances 

of 300 cm. For a fixed exposure rate, the difference in the mean values between sets of 10 readings was 

less than 0.5 %. The instrument readings were higher than the reference values by 2.6 % (at 0.286 

mR/h), 4.3 % (at 7.146 mR/h) and 2.5 % (at 127.4 mR/h) and 1.9 % (at 42.85 mR/h). 

For the 60Co beam, fields of 42.85 mR/h and 102.2 mR/h (also with uncertainties of 1 % (k = 2)) were 

generated with the same beam by moving the detector to positions at 300 cm and 195 cm, respectively. 

Reproducibility among sets of 10 readings was less than 0.1 %. For this source, the instrument readings 

were higher than the reference value by 2.3 % (at 102.2 mR/h) and 1.9 % (at 42.85 mR/h). For the 

relative instrument response curve, an average energy of 1252.993 keV (weighted by the emission 

probabilities of the two gamma-ray lines) was used to display the instrument response to 60Co. 

Weighted averages were used to combine data for one radionuclide at different exposure rates.

Calibration measurements were also performed with x-ray beams, yielding average energies of 60 keV 

(LK70 at 141 mR/h and 271 mR/h), 65 keV (NS80 at 719 mR/h), 83 keV (NS100 at 424 mR/h), 87 keV 

(LK100 at 181 mR/h and 357 mR/h), 109 keV (LK125 at 255 mR/h), 149 keV (LK170 at 216 mR/h), and 

211 keV (LK240 at 424 mR/h) [20, 21]. The energy spread in the x-ray beams ranged from 18 % to 32 % 

from the effective energy, and the uncertainties in the calibrated rates spanned from 1.1 % to 2.2 % (k = 

2). No strong exposure rate dependence was observed. For the beams at 60 keV and 87 keV, due to 

constraints in the experimental setup, the calibrated exposure rate was measured relative to the front 

face of the detector. These values were corrected using the inverse square law for the dependence of 

the exposure rate with the source-to-detector distance to estimate the value at the center of the 

detector. Measurements both at the front face and center of the detector were performed on a 

separate x-ray range to investigate the potential deviations from the inverse square law. The maximum 

observed difference due to scaling one of these rates and comparing to its respective measured value 

was 1.6 %, and most differences were much smaller. Although for the higher energies, the values from 

the instrument manual agrees to within a few percent of the NIST instrument response calibration, the 

values at low energies are somewhat larger, ranging from 7 % to 24 % larger than the NIST calibration 

values at the respective energies. 

The instrument relative response, obtained from the NIST reference beam measurements (see Figure 1), 

was fitted using two polynomials. A 3rd degree polynomial was used to fit the values between 60 keV 

and 211 keV and 2nd degree polynomial was used to fit the values between 211 keV and 1.253 MeV. The 

relative response for the 133Ba, 226Ra, 232Th and 232U sources were calculated using these fitting curves. 

The values of 1.0732 for 133Ba, 1.0267 for 226Ra, 1.0646 for 232Th and 1.0629 for 232U were obtained from 

the weighted response of the all gamma-ray energies emitted by each source for energies greater than 

40 keV. 

All exposure rates measured for the different sources using the instrument were corrected for energy 

response either using the efficiencies measured directly with the NIST beams for the 241Am, 137Cs and 

60Co sources or from a fit of the NIST calibration points shown in Figure 1 for the other radionuclides 

(i.e., 133Ba, 226Ra, 232Th, 232U).
6

3. Results 

Results for the measurements using the ionization chamber with sources placed at a distance of 1 m, 

sources producing fields of 5 μR/h, 10 μR/h, and 50 μR/h, and with sources at various offset heights are 

discussed. Data are also compared to the theoretical calculations listed in Ref. [17].

Theoretical calculations are shown for each measurement (except for height offset tests). Details 

regarding the theory using both a point source approximation and Monte Carlo transport codes are 

reported in Ref. [17]. For measurements at a source-to-detector distance of 1 m, point-source 

calculations are given for a 40 keV cutoff energy. For the instrument, all rates have been corrected for 

photon energy response using efficiencies measured directly from the NIST reference beams (see Fig. 1) 

or from interpolating these values.

3.1 Source measurements at a distance of 1 m 

Each source listed in Table 1 was placed at a distance of 1 m from the center of the ionization chamber. 

Exposure rates measured at this distance are shown in Table 2 for integration times of 10 s, 60 s, and 

300 s, along with the point-source method calculations from Ref. [17]. The standard deviation of the 

instrument measurements are obtained from 10 measurements. Subtracted backgrounds for the 

instrument were typically on the order of (6.6 ± 0.2) μR/h. Differences in calculated rate values between 

previous [17] and current data sets arise from source decay due to the 18 month time lapse between 

measurements.

Table 2: Summary of exposure rate measurements made with the HPIC model instrument placed at a 

distance of 1 m from the source. Rates (in μR/h) are shown for various integration times, Tint, along with 

their respective standard deviation (S, expressed in %). Rates are background subtracted and corrected 

by the detector energy response factor as a function of photon energy (see Section 2 and Figure 1). 

Calculated exposure rates using the point-source method are given with a 40 keV cutoff energy, vc.

Source Measurements of Exposure Rate (μR/h) for 3 Integration Times Calculations

Tint = 10 s % S Tint = 60 s % S Tint = 300 s % S vc = 40 keV

241Am 0.715 ± 0.919 129 0.370 ± 0.625 169 0.518 ± 0.665 128 0.625

133Ba 19.8 ± 0.3 1.7 19.9 ± 0.4 2.1 19.9 ± 0.2 0.8 15.6

60Co 42.1 ± 0.3 0.8 41.9 ± 0.3 0.7 41.5 ± 0.2 0.5 38.8

137Cs 25.6 ± 0.5 1.9 25.9 ± 0.5 1.9 25.7 ± 0.2 0.8 24.0

226Ra 7.42 ± 0.18 2.4 8.1 ± 0.9 10.7 7.5 ± 0.2 2.0 6.10

232Th 16.0 ± 0.4 2.4 16.0 ± 0.3 2.0 16.0 ± 0.3 1.6 16.9

232U 9.7 ± 0.2 2.4 9.7 ± 0.3 2.7 9.6 ± 0.1 1.4 8.47

Aside from the 241Am source (its count rate was close to the background level, due to the detector’s 

rapid decline in efficiency for low-energy gamma rays), the standard deviation for the instrument 

readings was less than 3 % even with the 10 s integration time and decreased to 0.5 % to 2 % with the 

300 s integration time.

Figure 2 shows the measured exposure rates, corrected and uncorrected by the relative energy 

response, relative to the rates calculated with the point source method for a 300 s integration time for 

all instruments. As illustrated in the figure, the measured exposure rates for the GE detector are mostly 
7

within or near the ±15 % boundaries, with no disagreement larger than 32 %. Although only the 300 s 

integration results are shown, the values for the shorter integration times do not show appreciable 

differences aside from slightly increased uncertainties (see values in Table 2). The quality of this 

agreement for the point source method is similar when the measured data is compared to the more 

involved Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNPX) calculation (see Ref. [17]). Data for 241Am is 

not shown in Figure 2 because the uncertainties are quite large due to the weakly observed signal and 

are off scale. The ratio compared to calculation is 0.83 ± 1.06 when the readings were corrected by the 

instrument energy response and 0.34 ± 0.43 when the readings were not corrected by the instrument 

energy response.

Lastly, data observed on the computer screen during testing was compared to data written to 

corresponding event files of the instrument. Although differences were observed, the magnitude of the 

differences was not greater than 1 %. It is possible this is a software issue.

Figure 2: Comparison of measured exposure rates (Rmeas) to their respective calculated rates (Rcalc) at a 

distance of 1 m for 300 s integration times corrected and uncorrected by the instrument response as a 

function of energy. Uncertainties are statistical only, and dotted lines give the ± 15 % boundaries. 

Though agreement is good, the 241Am source uncertainty is off scale for the instrument and not shown 

(0.95 ± 2.44).
8

3.2 Fields of 5 μR/h, 10 μR/h, 50 μR/h 

In addition to measuring the radiation field produce by the radioactive sources at a distance of 1 m, 

measurements were also performed at distances that were calculated to produce radiation fields of 

5 μR/h, 10 μR/h, and 50 μR/h (see Table 3). Point sources were used for the measurements; therefore, 

the measurements were compared with point-source method calculations. 

The exposure rate measurements are summarized in Table 3, and their comparison to calculations is 

shown in Figure 3. Similar to results for the 1 m-distance, these values were also background subtracted 

and corrected for non-linear energy response. Correction factors due to detector response are 

discussed in Section 2. Ten trials were performed, and the mean and standard deviation derived from 

those trials is shown. Uncertainties have been expanded with a coverage factor of k = 2 for direct 

comparison with measurements at 1 m. Only a 60 s integration time was used. Due to the length of the 

track, a field of 5 μR/h was unable to be achieved for the 60Co source. It was also not possible to position 

the 241Am source close enough to set up a 50 μR/h field due to the size of the detector. Ratios of 0.81 ± 

0.76 and 0.74 ± 0.16 for the 5 μR/h and 10 μR/h fields, respectively, for the 241Am source are not plotted 

in Figure 3.

A similar response across radionuclides is observed as with the data with varying fields at a fixed 

distance of 1 m. Within a single radionuclide, comparisons to calculation yield consistent results at each 

nominal field value of 5 μR/h, 10 μR/h, and 50 μR/h.

Table 3: Summary of measurements with the instrument at distances calculated to yield 5 μR/h, 

10 μR/h, and 50 μR/h fields, along with their respective standard deviation (S, expressed in %). Rates are 

background subtracted and corrected for energy response. Measurements with dashes were unable to 

be performed (see text).

Source

5 μR/h 10 μR/h 50 μR/h

Distance 

(m)

Rate 

(μR/h) % S

Distance 

(m)

Rate 

(μR/h) % S

Distance 

(m)

Rate 

(μR/h) % S

241Am 0.354 4.04 ± 1.90 47 0.251 7.44 ± 0.79 10.6 0.112 - -

133Ba 1.757 6.50 ± 0.30 4.7 1.242 12.9 ± 0.3 2.6 0.555 65.0 ± 0.3 0.5

60Co 2.776 - - 1.963 10.9 ± 0.3 2.7 0.878 53.9 ± 0.4 0.8

137Cs 2.190 5.48 ± 0.32 5.9 1.548 10.8 ± 0.3 2.5 0.692 54.1 ± 0.4 0.7

226Ra 1.114 6.40 ± 0.27 4.2 0.788 12.4 ± 0.4 3.4 0.352 64.3 ± 0.4 0.6

232Th 1.819 5.08 ± 0.30 5.9 1.286 9.8 ± 0.4 3.6 0.575 49.5 ± 0.5 1.0

232U 1.295 5.89 ± 0.27 4.6 0.916 11.6 ± 0.4 3.8 0.410 59.2 ± 0.5 0.9
9

Figure 3: Comparison of measured exposure rates (Rmeas) to their respective calculated rates (Rcalc) for 

fields of 5 μR/h, 10 μR/h, and 50 μR/h. Uncertainties are statistical only, and dotted lines give the ±15 % 

boundaries. Measurements were not possible with a 5 μR/h field for the 60Co source (see text). The 

241Am source data is not shown because uncertainties are off scale (see text for values).

3.3 Testing sensitivity to source offset 

Because of the fairly large size of the instrument compared to the other instruments (a 25.4-cm 

diameter sphere pressurized with argon encased in a 31 cm × 31 cm × 36 cm aluminum box), a third set 

of measurements was performed in order to assess the effect of source offset. Three height offsets were 

measured at two extreme distances—a close distance (0.25 m) and a far distance (2.089 m, at the end of 

the track)—with a 60Co source (see Table 1) using a 60 s integration time. Data was background 

subtracted (background ≈ (6.7 ± 0.2) μR/h) and corrected based on the energy response dependence.
10

Table 4: Summary of measurements with the instrument for 60Co source at different offsets from the 

detector center. Rates are in μR/h. Uncertainties are only statistical for the far distance and include 

systematics for the close distance (see text).

Offset (cm) Rate (dclose ) Rate (dfar )

-6.35 685.9 ± 20.6 -

-3.18 732.1 ± 28.2 -

-1.59 740.8 ± 20.9 -

0 747.9 ± 10.4 9.7 ± 0.5

1.59 755.4 ± 3.0 9.8 ± 0.5

3.18 739.4 ± 11.9 9.8 ± 0.7

6.05 700.3 ± 8.3 9.8 ± 0.6

Results are shown in Table 4 and Figure 4. Baseline measurements were recorded on the centerline of 

the detector sphere at each distance, and height offsets were chosen as fractions of the radius 

(approximately 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2). The inner spherical anode and outer spherical cathode have radii of 

2.54 cm and 12.7 cm, respectively. Because the source height was fixed, the detector was raised 

(positive heights in the table and figure) and lowered (negative heights) with the use of a laboratory 

jack. The maximum height of 6.05 cm was slightly less than 1/2 the detector radius of 6.35 cm because 

of the finite range of the jack.

A mean rate and standard deviation were calculated from 10 readings at each height. These rates were 

difficult to reproduce at the close distance after repositioning the instrument at the same height due to 

the size and the weight of the instrument. Statistical uncertainties on each separate set of 10 

measurements at this distance were less than 0.2 %. In order to quantify the observed differences in the 

multiple sets of data at a fixed height, a mean of three separate sets of 10 trials was calculated, and the 

uncertainties in the table and figure indicate the standard deviation among those three sets. It should be 

noted that, for the maximum height of 6.05 cm, only two data sets of data were taken, and multiple 

passes at the same height to check reproducibility were performed only at the close distance, these 

were used to determine the systematic uncertainty. Because the instrument readings were less sensitive 

to height offset at the far distance, 10 trials were logged at each height only once and only for positive 

detector offsets.

For the far distance, the exposure rate is not sensitive to height offset within at least half the radius of 

the detector, as one would expect due to the small change in illuminated solid angle. Uncertainties for 

this case are purely statistical. The solid angle effect is much more pronounced at the close distance 

(roughly one radius length away from the edge of the sphere). Due to the systematic uncertainties in 

the data due to repositioning, it is unclear if the effect can be observed within 3.5 cm of the instrument 

center. The solid angle effect is becomes unequivocally apparent at the largest offset, where the rate 

falls by nearly 10 %.

The effect of source offset was also tested at the NIST calibration range with beams delivering 137Cs 

radiation fields of 0.286 μR/h and 7.146 μR/h at a distance of 300 cm. The offset ranged from -6.35 cm 

to 6.35 cm, relative to the detector center. For this extended beam, as opposed to the point sources 

discussed above, no sensitivity to offset was observed for either field strength, as expected due to the 

large beam size.
11

Figure 4: Comparison of exposure rates for 60Co source offset at a close distance (d = 0.25 m) and a far 

distance (d = 2.089 m). Uncertainties are only statistical for the far distance and include the systematic 

uncertainty obtained from the standard deviation due to the repositioning of the instrument for the 

close distance (see text).
12

3.4 Backgrounds 

Background rates were monitored in three locations: 1) a low-scatter room (enclosed by aluminum walls 

and flooring) where all data with sources from Table 1 were recorded, 2) a highly shielded underground 

laboratory (built with low-level materials) where the instrument was exposed to high-intensity 137Cs 

calibration beams, and 3) a first-floor office. Figure 6 shows the backgrounds in these locations over a 

period of 25 days.

The background rate in the low-scatter room over the course of the first seven days shown in Figure 6 

was (6.63 ± 0.22) μR/h (3.3 %) (mean and standard deviation). Several increases in exposure rate up to 

40 μR/h to 70 μR/h were observed (denoted by the asterisks in the figure). It is possible that these are 

from sources from another group brought into the room, or they could be from cosmic rays or other 

background fluctuations. Small gaps in the data indicate where data from source measurements for the 

present tests were removed. During testing, heavy rainfall occurred multiple times and changes in the 

background of the instrument can be also seen in Figure 5.

The average background in the highly shielded underground laboratory was (3.95 ± 0.14) μR/h (3.6 %) 

and (5.32 ± 0.16) μR/h (3.1 %) in the office around day 12. The latter value in the office is nearly identical 

for the background for day 21 to 25, even when including the several data points that fluctuated by up 

to 50 %.

Figure 5: Background exposure rate as a function of time in three locations.

4. Conclusions 

In this work we compared the results of determining a radiation field using two different methods. One 

method consisted of performing measurements with an ionization chamber while the other method 
13

consisted of calculation of the field based on a known activity of the radioactive sources [17], using the 

point-source method to calculate the exposure rate. For both methods, the radiation field was 

determined at a variety of source distances, heights, and radiation fields in order to assess the ability to 

precisely and accurately determine exposure rates. Measurements with NIST reference beams indicate 

the instrument response correction factors listed in the manual are accurate to within a few percent for 

high energies but display larger deviations up to 35 % for lower energies.

Even with only a 10 s integration time, the precision in the instrument’s readings is less than 3 %, and 

this continues to improve for longer integration times 0.5 % to 2 %. Source offset effects were observed 

but only at very close source-to-detector distances. The agreement of the GE detector readings, after 

applying the instrument response correction factors obtained from the NIST measurements, as 

compared to the calculated values for the radiation fields are mostly within or near the ±15 % 

boundaries, with no disagreement larger than 32 %. 

Background measurements were examined in three separate locations. Localized background 

measurements are quite stable and can be used as a solid measure for background subtraction, though 

care should be taken during times of heavy rainfall, depending on the location and type of building 

where measurements are performed. 

It is our recommendation that ANSI/IEEE and the IEC consider the degree of specificity required in 

setting up radiation fields. The quality of the test results, when testing against written consensus 

standards, are dependent on quality and precision of the radiation field and background measurements 

for each test. If the instrumentation used to verify these fields is not consistent, the results of such tests 

could show a large variability depending on how the measurements are performed. Exposure rates 

measurements should be used only if the instrument to measure the rates has a small variability in its 

determination of rate, a known energy response for relative corrections, a known rate dependence, and 

a known angular dependence. Another possible solution that will reduce the uncertainty in the radiation 

field determination would be to encourage the use of source activities or emission rates, with known 

source encapsulation and uncertainties and perform the test at a specific source-to-detector distance.

5. Acknowledgments 

The authors would like to thank the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Domestic Nuclear 

Detection Office (DNDO) for funding this work.

6. References 

[1] ANSI/IEEE N42.32.``American National Standard Performance Criteria for Alarming Personal 

Radiation Detectors Used for Homeland Security.”

[2] IEC-62401.``Radiation Protection instrumentation - Alarming personal radiation devices for detection 

of illicit trafficking of radioactive material.”

[3] ANSI/IEEE N42.48.``American National Standard Performance Criteria for Alarming Spectroscopic 

Personal Radiation Detectors for Homeland Security.” 
14

[4] IEC 62618.``Radiation Protection instrumentation - Alarming spectroscopic personal radiation devices 

(SPRD) for detection of illicit trafficking of radioactive material.”

[5] ANSI N42.33. ``American National Standard Data for Portable Radiation Detection Instrumentation 

for Homeland Security.''

[6] IEC 62533. ``Radiation Protection Instrumentation - Highly Sensitive Hand-held Instruments for 

Photon Detection of Radioactive Material.''

[7] IEC 62534 ``Radiation protection instrumentation - Highly sensitive hand-held instruments for 

neutron detection of radioactive material.''

[8] ANSI/IEEE N42.34,``American National Standard Performance Criteria for Hand-Held Instruments for 

the Detection and Identification of Radionuclides.”

[9] IEC-62327,``Radiation protection instrumentation - Hand-held instruments for the detection and 

identification of radionuclides and for the indication of ambient dose equivalent rate from photon 

radiation.”

[10] ANSI/IEEE N42.53,``American National Standard Performance Criteria for Backpack Based Radiation 

Detection Systems used for Homeland Security."

[11] IEC 62694, ``Radiation protection instrumentation – Backpack-type radiation detector (BRD) for 

detection of illicit trafficking of radioactive material.”

[12] ANSI/IEEE N42.43,``American National Standard Performance Criteria for Mobile and Transportable 

Radiation Monitors used for Homeland Security. ”

[13] ANSI/IEEE N42.35.``American National Standard for Evaluation and Performance of Radiation 

Detection Portal Monitors for Use in Homeland Security.” 

[14] IEC 62244,``Radiation protection instrumentation - Installed radiation monitors for the detection of 

radioactive and special nuclear materials at national borders.”

[15] ANSI/IEEE N42.38, ``American National Standard Performance Criteria for Spectroscopy-Based 

Portal Monitors Used for Homeland Security." 

[16] IEC-62484, ``Radiation protection instrumentation – Spectroscopy-based portal monitors used for 

the detection and identification of illicit trafficking of radioactive material."

[17] L. Pibida, M. Mille, and B. Norman. J. Res. Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol., 118:292–300, 2013.

[18] L. Lucas, L. Pibida, M. Unterweger, and L. Karam. Radiat. Protection Dosimetry, 113:108–111, 2005. 

[19] L. Pibida, M. Unterweger, and L. Karam. Appl. Radiat. Isotopes, 64:1271–1272, 2006.

[20] P. Lamperti and M. O’Brien. NIST Special Publications, 250-58, 2001.

[21] ISO/IS 4037-1X and gamma reference radiations for calibrating dosimeters and dose rate meters 

and for determining their responses as a function of photon energy--Part 1.: Radiation characteristics 

and production methods.