Open to the Public & Open for Business Low Background Counting Facilities at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Open to the Public & Open for Business Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

Scope of Low Background Counting at LBL Direct g-ray Counting of Materials g-ray Counting of neutron-activated Materials NaI and HPGe detectors Surface Facility on LBL campus Low Background, Well-shielded Facility ~180 m underground (water) at Oroville in Northern California Foothills Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting Logistics Sample size: ~ 2 kg to obtain highest sensitivity, smaller samples possible Counting times: ~ 2 weeks for highest sensitivity, but generally activity dependent Neutron activated samples require careful coordination in advance Samples should, ideally, stack on/around detectors, some customizing is possible at LBL Fed-ex works fine Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

Facilities and Sensitivities LBL (Building 72) Facility NaI and HPGe detectors ≥1.5m low activity concrete Used for initial screening, ~ ppb level U, Th, 1 ppm K, ~0.05 pCi/Kg 60Co Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting Oroville Facility Housed in Powerhouse of the Oroville Dam ~ 180 mwe, low activity Pb and Cu shields, Radon flushed counting chambers. HPGe detectors Site of the UCSB-LBL 0nbb experiment ~ 50 to 100 ppt U, Th, 100 ppb K, 0.005 pCi/Kg 60Co Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting Table of Low Background Counting Sensitivities at LBNL’s Two Facilities. Direct Counting Sensitivities Berkeley Site Oroville Site Uranium and Daughters 0.5 ppb 50 ppt Thorium and Daughters 2.0 ppb 200 ppt K 1.0 ppm 100 ppb 60Co 0.04 pCi/Kg 0.004 pCi/Kg Sensitivities are currently limited by detector contamination. More depth is not essential. Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting Survey of “Customers” 25 years of experience and service to the Nuclear Physics, High Energy Physics, Non-accelerator Physics communities “open” facility, and expandable to house additional detectors as demand warrants UCSB-LBL 0nbb experiment Sudbury Neutrino Observatory: solar n CDMS: Dark Matter KamLAND: reactor n Katrin: tritium beta decay Majorana, CUORE: 0nbb Daya Bay: q13 Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting Contact Information Staff: Kevin Lesko Al Smith Donna Hurley ktlesko@lbl.gov 510-486-7731 Kevin Lesko S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting