Commissioning of an NRC-type sealed water calorimeter at METAS using 60Co γ-rays

Abstract

As part of a collaborative project between the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Swiss Federal Office of Metrology and Accreditation (METAS), a sealed water calorimeter was built at NRC and transferred to METAS. The calorimeter is operated at 4 °C and uses two thermistor probes in a sealed glass vessel containing high-purity water to measure the radiation-induced temperature rise. The various correction factors have been evaluated and the estimated standard uncertainty on the absorbed dose to water is 0.41%. An extensive set of measurements using 60Co γ-rays was carried out at NRC and two ionization chambers were calibrated against the absorbed dose determined calorimetrically. The chambers were also calibrated against the NRC standard for absorbed dose. After transferring the calorimeter to METAS, a similar set of measurements was carried out using their 60Co beam and the same two ionization chambers were calibrated against the absorbed dose to water established at METAS. The discrepancy between the three sets of calibration coefficients was smaller than the estimated standard uncertainty of 0.47% on the ratio of any pair of calibration coefficients.