Health Physics Laboratories

Department of Health Physics

Laboratories

The UNLV Department of Health Physics has a wide range of radioanalytical capabilities for analyzing environmental matrices. The Program has over 4000 square feet of laboratory space in the new Rod Lee Bigelow Health Sciences Building.
These laboratories include the:

Spectroscopy Laboratory

- This laboratory contains three high purity germanium gamma ray detection systems and a 16 channel alpha spectroscopy system. The gamma spectroscopy systems allow quick and accurate identification and quantification of any gamma ray emitting radionuclides at environmental levels. The state-of-the-art alpha spectroscopy system quantifies levels of alpha emitting radionuclides in radiochemically prepared samples.

Liquid Scintillation Laboratory

- In addition to housing a brand new low-level alpha/beta discriminating liquid scintillation counter, this laboratory has two Oxford automated gross alpha/beta proportional counter and three gas flow proportional counters. The liquid scintillation counter is particularly useful in determining levels of 3H, 14C, 32P, 35S, or 90Sr in samples in a liquid matrix.

Environmental Radiochemistry Laboratory

- In this laborato ry, soil, water, vegetation, and air filter sample are prepared for counting. Special equipment includes cation and anion separation columns, a drying oven, a furnace, various environmental shakers, and a radiochemical fume hood.

Hot Sample Preparation Laboratory

- This laboratory contains facilities used to prepare moderately radioactive environmental samples and standards.

Survey Instrument Laboratory

- This laboratory serves primarily as an undergraduate teaching laboratory. It contains a fume hood designed to handle radioactive samples, miniscaler workstations, and a variety of portable proportional, Geiger-Muller, and scintillation detectors.

Lab Procedures

Thermometer Calibration Automatic Pipette Calibration Volumetric Flask Calibration
Balance Calibration Sample Control and Identification

Determination of Tritium in Water and Urine (Distillation Method)
Isotopic Determination of Thorium and Uranium in Environmental and Bioassay Matrices
Gross Alpha and Beta in Water
Isotopic Determination of Plutonium in Water
Soil Particle Size Analysis

Laboratory Services

The UNLV Health Physics program participates in the DOE Environmental Measurements Laboratory’s Quality Assessment Program. This interlaboratory comparison is held twice a year and the results are released to the public.

Equipment

Large-field gamma camera
3 - High purity germanium detector systems with permanent shielding
1 - Harshaw thermoluminescent dosimeter reading system
1 - Packard model 2700TR-SP Liquid scintillation counter
2 - Ludlum model 2200 ratemeters
6 - NaI(Tl) scintillation detector units
1 - Oxford Oasis Alpha spectrometry system (16 detectors)
3 - Tennelec model TC 256 Alpha spectrometry units
1 - Tennelec Model LB5100 alpha/beta counting system
1- Tennelec Model XL5 alpha/beta counting system
3 - Nuclear Measurement Corp. Model PC-5 proportional counters
1 - Keithley model 35050A X-ray dosimeter unit
2 - Ludlum Model 1000 scalers
3 - Eberline model MS-2 miniscalers
1 - Nucleus model 575 scaler - ratemeter
3 - Nucleus model 500 scalers
1 - Air sampler and air flow calibrator
Numerous radiation survey meters