On the determination of decision thresholds, detection limits and confidence intervals in nuclear radiation measurements

A survey is given on investigations to standardize statistical quantities such as decision thresholds, detection limits and confidence intervals in nuclear radiation measurements. The procedures are based on the testing of statistical hypotheses about the equality of the statistical distributions of sample and background counts. The quality of these statistical quantities themselves is characterized by the accuracy with which they grant the errors of first and second kind which are chosen by the experimentalist. A series of national standards has been developed in Germany. Based on these DIN standards, ISO is presently elaborating analogous international standards.