Radioactive sources

The calibration sources used for the calibration tests are reported in Table 2.1. The sources supplied by Product Laboratory (IPL) had an active diameter of 5.0 mm, while those produced by Amersham had a diameter of 1.0 mm. Each of the radioactive sources was arranged in a low back-scattering polystyrene foam case ($60\times 60\times 120$ mm) on a side of which a round window was carved, in order to make the source directly visible from the satellite. The source case was held by a 200 mm long (5 mm diameter) Aluminum rod, connected with a proper interface to the horizontally extended arm (Al tube, 20 mm external diameter) of a vertical 600 cm long tooling bar (Fig. 2.2). The horizontally extended arm of the tooling bar was about 700 mm long and allowed the source to be located at any positions at different distances from the tooling bar.

 

Source Activity Supplier Main line Branch Other lines Half life

$$\mu$$ keV keV

Am241 100 Amersham 60 0.353 12-22-26 432 y

Co57 101 IPL 122 0.963 6-14-136 271.79 d

Ce139 104 IPL 166 0.799 33-39 137.64 d

Hg203 39.6 IPL 279 0.815 71-85 46.60 d

Sn113 96.7 IPL 392 0.649 24-28 115.09 d

Sr85 99.9 IPL 514 0.984 13-15 64.84 d

Cs137 95.4 IPL 662 0.851 32 30.1 y