Reliability of the Analytical Result of Tritium with Liquid Scintillation Counting and Examination of Different Counting Vials

Abstract

The abnormal values of background count in liquid scintillation counting are sometimes caused by static electricity charged on a Teflon counting vial. The experiments were carried out by measuring the background sample in the Teflon vial repeatedly under various counting conditions. The spurious counts were observed in almost case at the beginning of measurement of background sample. These spurious counts couldn't be detected even if statistical analysis such as null hypothesis test is employed. Therefore the analytical results of tritium must be evaluated by taking account of the spurious counts. In addition, a substitute for a Teflon counting vial was selected to solve the above problem.