CEFAS25-115 Contract for liquid scintillation counter for Cefas laboratory

The Radioanalytical team at Cefas Lowestoft has a requirement to replace some existing end-of-life equipment with a more efficient and reliable model. The Liquid Scintillation counter will have an exceptionally low background count rate to enable necessary improvements to our already low Limits of Detection to support a range of programmes, including Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE), and to help Cefas develop systems approaches and tackle complex environmental challenges.

The Supplier will provide an ultra-Low level Liquid Scintillation counter as follows:

3.1. with substantial passive shielding in addition to active methods of background count reduction (integral guard counter, electronic BGD reduction systems etc)

3.2. provide the lowest achievable background count rates for both alpha and beta determinations

3.3. be capable of alpha/beta discrimination and simultaneous detection and quantification of multiple radionuclides/ROI’s (e.g. Plutonium alphas and Pu-241 beta emissions) at low environmental levels as well as the typical H-3, C-14, U-234/238, Ra-226, Rn-222, Y-90, Sr-89 etc

3.4. be capable of detecting beta’s up to 2MeV and alpha’s up to 10MeV

3.5. have beta efficiencies of at least 35% for samples with significant quench although much higher efficiencies would be anticipated for unquenched samples

3.6. have alpha efficiencies of at least 95% and Cerenkov efficiency of at least 60%

3.7. have in-built cooling to maintain appropriate, stable temperature

3.8. have internal, radioactive standard for quench correction curves

3.9. Power supply to be UK socket compatible.