Development of a low-level Ar-37 calibration standard

Abstract

Argon-37 is an environmental signature of an underground nuclear explosion. Producing and quantifying low-level Ar-37 standards is an important step in the development of sensitive field measurement instruments. This paper describes progress at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in developing a process to generate and quantify low-level Ar-37 standards, which can be used to calibrate sensitive field systems at activities consistent with soil background levels. This paper presents a discussion of the measurement analysis, along with assumptions and uncertainty estimates.