Measurements of low radioactive contaminations in lead using bolometric detectors

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Abstract

Bolometric detectors made with samples of crystalline and polycrystalline lead have been operated to measure their internal radioactivity due to 210Pb. It has been found that contaminations of hundreds of becquerels per kilogram are present in commercial low radioactivity lead and that these contaminations can be reduced by an order of magnitude by crystallisation. A low activity of a few hundreds of millibecquerels per kilogram still persists in specially prepared low radioactivity lead. No evidence for contamination is on the contrary found in a 2000 year old lead sample from a sunk Roman ship, at a level of less than 20 millibecquerel per kilogram.

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