Description and modelling of a standard low level environmental radionuclide calibration facility

The objective of this paper is the development of a much needed facility to calibrate environmental radiation field measuring devices. A well characte rised standard low-level radiation field facility can provide the basis for instrument calibrations and dispute resolution. The experimental facility which was installed underground in a large low radiation scatter room, will be described. The facility was approached using multidimensional Monte Car lo program (MCNP-Monte Carlo N-Particle code) which models the detector/sou rce to estimate detector efficiencies. This work is the outcome of the clos e cooperation between the Ionizing Radiation Division of NIST, USA and Nucl ear Engineering Laboratory of Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.