The Intercomparison of Mixed Nuclide Rod Source Sets Used to Calibrate Waste Assay Systems

The relative activities of five sets of commercially available, certified mixed-nuclide rod gamma sources have been measured. The results are compared with one another and with the manufacturer’s calibration certificates in order to evaluate the self consistency, accuracies and uncertainties of the activities claimed. The comparison measurements were made with Canberra’s Tomographic Gamma Scanner (TGS) System in Segmented Gamma Scanner (SGS) mode, operated with a single segment and using a 120% relative efficiency HPGe detector. Each set of six rods was measured in a rotating 208-liter drum geometry typical of applications in which such rod source sets are commonly used for both initial calibration and operational verification measurements. Three of the five source sets were found to be consistent with one another within the experimental and claimed certificate uncertainties; however, two of the mixed-nuclide source sets were found to have nuclide-to-nuclide variations of activity significantly in excess of expectations based upon the claimed 99% confidence-level uncertainties. Such discrepancies could introduce substantial bias into waste measurement results made using the afflicted rod sets as the calibration standards. The findings of this work lead us to conclude that, where possible, the certified activities and associated uncertainties on newly acquired sources should be independently confirmed before relying on them as calibration standards.