Small Current Measurements for a New Standard in Radionuclide Metrology

VR electrometer current with different cables and connectors connected to its input. Results are given for a G874 connector (red circles), a BNC connector together with a low noise BNC cable (black triangles), and for a triax input connector with triax cable (inset).

by Helko van den Brom, Gert Rietveld, and Jan Paepen

The accurate measurement of small electrical currents is essential for the measurement of ionizing radiation as generated by radionuclides. VSL has been involved in the work conducted by IRMM in support of the CCRI(II) Working Group on Realization of the Becquerel, whose objective is the development of a reproducible re-entrant ionization chamber that could ultimately replace the ‘Système International de Référence’ (SIR), the BIPM facility used for international comparisons of radioactivity measurements, by a worldwide distributed radioactivity standard.

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