Counting Laboratories

Counting Laboratory Overview
Nuclear counting laboratories or “counting rooms” are to be found in many facilities across the globe:

Nuclear industry
Research facilities
Environmental and health protection
Medical facilities such as nuclear medicine
Radiochemistry laboratories
Commercial counting laboratories
Emergency response vehicles

Counting laboratories differ!

Sample sizes: small, large, liquid, solid, filter paper based
Sample preparation: none, simple through to complex
Sample activity ranges: from low to high count rates
Count times: minutes to hours
Numbers of samples to count per day: a few to a few hundred

Measurements to be made in a counting laboratory.
Any, or all, of the following measurements may be made in a counting laboratory depending on the source of the samples.

Gamma Spectrometry
Alpha Spectrometry
Gross Alpha Beta Counting
Liquid Scintillation Counting

As a pioneer of the PC-Based spectroscopy approach since the beginning in the early 1980’s, ORTEC has continued to develop the concept of the spectroscopy workstation, based on application specific detector, hardware, and software operating on a personal computer, most often within a local or a wide-area network, under the ORTEC CONNECTIONS-32 spectroscopy architecture. ORTEC hardware and software components are configurable and designed for simple integration into turn-key counting laboratory solutions.

Gamma Spectroscopy

Counting Room

ORTEC offers a wide range of detectors (HPGe and NaI(Tl)), signal processing electronics, software and mechanical accessories to meet the gamma spectroscopy needs of counting laboratories large and small, in the form of add-on components to the equipping of an entire laboratory.

Mechanically cooled ORTEC HPGe spectrometers are undergoing rapid evolution, eliminating traditional labor intensive liquid nitrogen management.

Digital signal processing, pioneered by ortec in the 1990’s virtually eliminates system drift, making recalibrations much less frequent.

Advanced software delivers ease of use combined with accuracy. Customised reporting and networked data communications are all available form ORTEC to make life simpler.

At the present time, much is being said of the “nuclear renaissance” which will lead to new laboratories requiring a complete set-up, but we appreciate that in most cases laboratories have a mixture of existing equipment which for budgetary reasons are replaced or expanded year-on-year rather than all at once.

ORTEC has what is required, from upgrade components to complete turn-key systems or whole laboratories.

Detector Systems

Information on the wide range of ORTEC HPGe Detectors is available here.

ORTEC Offers a range of scintillation detectors in association with the latest ORTEC digital signal processing electronics. Read more. . .

Signal Processing Electronics and Multichannel Analysers

ORTEC has the widest range of multichannel analyser products, both analog and digital, integrated and modular, to ensure maximum performance, reliability, value, and compatibility with existing installations. Read more. . .

Where the preference is for a modular solution, perhaps for reasons of compatibility, ORTEC has a wide range of choices. Read more. . .

Application Software

For more than 25 years, ORTEC has developed PC-based application software for the needs of nuclear spectroscopists in environments such as nuclear counting laboratories.
A range of products is available covering:

Acquisition control and spectral display
Spectrum Analysis
Customised reporting
Customised user interfaces
Networks