Uncertainty evaluation in activity measurements using ionization chambers

Pressurized re-entrant (or 4 pi) ionization chambers (ICs) connected to current-measuring electronics are used for activity measurements of photon emitting radionuclides and some beta emitters in the fields of metrology and nuclear medicine. As a secondary method, these instruments need to be calibrated with appropriate activity standards from primary or direct standardization. The use of these instruments over 50 years has been well described in numerous publications, such as the Monographie BIPM-4 and the special issue of Metrologia on radionuclide metrology (Ratel 2007 Metrologia 44 S7-16, Schrader1997 Activity Measurements With Ionization Chambers (Monographie BIPM-4) Schrader 2007 Metrologia 44 S53-66, Cox et al 2007 Measurement Modelling of the International Reference System (SIR) for Gamma-Emitting Radionuclides (Monographie BIPM-7)). The present work describes the principles of activity measurements, calibrations, and impurity corrections using pressurized ionization chambers in the first part and the uncertainty analysis illustrated with example uncertainty budgets from routine source-calibration as well as from an international reference system (SIR) measurement in the second part.