Standardization of Ga-68 by coincidence measurements, liquid scintillation counting and 4πγ counting.

The radionuclide (68)Ga is one of the few positron emitters that can be prepared in-house without the use of a cyclotron. It disintegrates to the ground state of (68)Zn partially by positron emission (89.1%) with a maximum energy of 1899.1 keV, and partially by electron capture (10.9%). This nuclide has been standardized in the frame of a cooperation project between the Radionuclide Metrology laboratories from CIEMAT (Spain) and CNEA (Argentina). Measurements involved several techniques: 4πß-γ coincidences, integral gamma counting and Liquid Scintillation Counting using the triple to double coincidence ratio and the CIEMAT/NIST methods. Given the short half-life of the radionuclide assayed, a direct comparison between results from both laboratories was excluded and a comparison of experimental efficiencies of similar NaI detectors was used instead.

Experimental determination of elemental compositions and densities of several common liquid scintillators.

New accurate data for the density and the elemental composition of several common liquid scintillators have been determined in this work. These data can be used to correctly determine or calculate the counting efficiency of radio-nuclides as well as to evaluate more accurately the uncertainties in LSC measurements due to variability on the composition of scintillators. The discrepancy between nominal densities at 20 degrees C and the real densities at 20 degrees C or 16 degrees C can reach up to 4% among different batches of commercial scintillators all having the same nominal composition. Also significant differences in the elemental composition of commercial cocktails have been found compared to the nominal values. These differences range from 2% up to 260% depending on the element and the scintillator being measured.

Standardization of 18F by coincidence and LSC methods.

The nuclide 18F disintegrates to 18O by beta+ emission (96.86%) and electron capture (3.14%) with a half-life of 1.8288 h. It is widely used in nuclear medicine for positron emission tomography (PET). A radioactive solution of this nuclide has been standardized by two techniques: coincidence measurements with a pressurized proportional counter and liquid scintillation counting using the CIEMAT/NIST method. One ampoule containing a solution calibrated in activity was sent for measurement at the International Reference System maintained by the BIPM. Results are in excellent agreement with SIR values.