Stability of a New, Multichannel, Low-Level Liquid Scintillation Counter System, Kvartett

Abstract

Kvartett is a new liquid scintillation counting (LSC) system for radiocarbon dating that takes a radical departure from conventional systems to obtain a compact, low-level counting system measuring four samples simultaneously. Each sample vial, inside the well of a large NaI(Tl) guard-counter crystal (facing down), sits on top of a vertical PMT. The fourfold counting capacity can be used to increase the number of samples being dated or to get higher precision. The increased throughput helps to keep a rigid quality-control standard. We monitored the background count rate almost continuously for 7 months, and measured the count rate of a standard repeatedly for 2 months. The results show the background and system reproducibility to be stable.