Standardization of a 32P solution containing pure-beta impurities using the TDCR method in liquid scintillation counting

The liquid scintillation counting standardization of pure-beta solutions containing pure-beta emitter impurities is a difficult task because, unlike that which can be achieved by using gamma-ray spectrometry, the continuous characteristics of beta spectra and the poor intrinsic resolution of LSC spectrometers do not allow an easy identification and precise determination of the activity concentration of these impurities. This problem was recently encountered in the standardization of a 32P solution in the framework of an international comparison, where the activity contribution of the impurities was over 10% of the main nuclide activity at the reference date. This paper describes the method used to identify the impurities in this 32P solution and the calculation of the detection efficiencies using the triple to double coincidence ratio model. Details on the calculation of the uncertainties of each activity and the covariances between these activities are given.