1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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, pCi/Kg 60Co
Kevin Lesko
S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting
Contact Information
Staff: Kevin Lesko
Al Smith
Donna Hurley
Kevin Lesko
S-1 Workshop Low Background Counting