14a 3Lykken

Low-Alpha Lead & theCosmic Ray Equivalency Factor: 

Low-Alpha Lead & the Cosmic Ray Equivalency Factor GI Lykken, Dept. of Physics, UND, RL Brodzinski, PNNL, Earl Palmer, Palm Leaf Products, & Mike Tucker, Alpha Sciences

Acknowledgements: 

Acknowledgements Tim May e-mail reply to John Gieser, June 1997. Low-Alpha Lead Symposium, LAL, Feb 26, 1997. Gary Larson, Far Side Comics. Ten Best Pictures of the Year 2003

Soft Errors- Genesis: 

Soft Errors- Genesis Tim May in an e-mail June 1997 “How I came to suspect low levels of uranium and/or thorium while I was sitting in an outdoor hot tub (or Jacuzzi) at my apartment complex in Sunnyvale, CA makes for a good anecdote, and a true one, of course.” “Much of what I did was never allowed to be published. But, fortunately, Intel rewarded me in various ways, which is why I’ve been a man of leisure (!!) since 1986.”

Soft Errors : 

Soft Errors Soft errors may also be caused by cosmic rays

Low-Level  Counting: 

Low-Level  Counting Mike Tucker-Alpha Sciences Jan 2006 “I'm midway through an unsolicited paper on a frighteningly recurring event; companies making the incorrect assumption that because they are now lead-free, they are alpha-free.’’ “On the contrary, we've measured several ‘solder’ replacements, completely free of Pb, only to find them very active (10x higher than comparable Pb), some on the order of 0.10 a/cm2/hr. ’’ “It would be of great interest to see what effect, if any, cosmic rays might have upon the alpha activity of a sample…”

Low-Level  Counting: 

Low-Level  Counting Mike Tucker-Alpha Sciences Jan 2006 “The last Model 1950 to go out the door to a customer (shipped Dec. 23, 2005) was showing a background of 1.733 counts/hr.” “Over the 1000 sq cm area of the window, that's 0.0017 a/cm 2/hr background.” “Over a period of 40 hours, the Lower Limit of Detection would be 0.0009, and down to 0.00057 after 100 hours.”

Low-Level Counting: 

Low-Level Counting Ron Brodzinski, PNNL January 2006 “In order to achieve these levels of sensitivity, it is necessary to utilize construction materials with unprecedented low-levels of radiological impurities; many orders of magnitude lower than the equilibrium levels of radioactivity maintained in most materials by cosmic-ray activation.” “There is a point, however, where the level of cosmic-ray interactions in these materials, will render further efforts to reduce radioactive impurities in these materials meaningless. At that cosmic-ray-equivalency level, further efforts and expense to reduce radiological impurities in component materials will be pointless, except for those instances of deep underground deployments.” “These cosmic-ray equivalency factors have never been measured for any material.”

More on Low-Level  Counting: 

More on Low-Level  Counting Ron Brodzinski, PNL January 2006 “The 4 musketeers was taken at the start of our experiments in Homestake at the 4850-foot level circa 1981”

Proposed Experiment Glenn I. Lykken, Dept of Physics, U of ND, glenn.lykken@und.nodak.edu,Ron L. Brodzinski, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, ron.brodzinski@pnl.gov, Earl Palmer, Palm Leaf Products, Inc., epalmer2@verizon.net, andMike Tucker, Alpha Sciences, Inc., ike@alphacounting.com. : 

Proposed Experiment Glenn I. Lykken, Dept of Physics, U of ND, glenn.lykken@und.nodak.edu, Ron L. Brodzinski, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, ron.brodzinski@pnl.gov, Earl Palmer, Palm Leaf Products, Inc., epalmer2@verizon.net, and Mike Tucker, Alpha Sciences, Inc., ike@alphacounting.com. 1. “We propose to determine the effect of cosmic rays by measuring radiation from materials used in semiconductor memories in the presence of cosmic rays (at the surface of a deep mine) and in the absence of cosmic rays (deep underground).” 2. “A background counting laboratory (≈15m3) at ground level and a background counting laboratory (again ≈15m3)at the 4850-ft level are requested. Capability to access acquired data stored in an onsite computer via the internet is required.” 3. “Counting periods of up to three weeks at each level is anticipated beginning in June, 2007. “ 4. “Minimal 120 V 60 Hz power (≈ 2 kW) to operate the detector and data acquisition equipment is anticipated.” 5. “Access to the internet to remotely operate data acquisition equipment is required.”

Thank you for your kind attention! : 

Thank you for your kind attention! Could the cosmic-ray equivalency factor be an enigma?

There’s ν light at DUSEL: 

There’s ν light at DUSEL