Reliable measurements of α, β and γ radiation are of great importance for
environmental and food monitoring, medical diagnosis and treatment,
radioprotection and nuclear safeguards.
IRMM is specialised in accurate radioactivity measurements and develops and
improves techniques for measuring the contents of radioactive substances in
various materials, from very low to high radioactivity.
Basic radionuclide metrology
The basic radionuclide metrology at IRMM aims at solving problems in primary
radioactivity standardisation and measuring and evaluating radioactive decay
data. IRMM provides primary radioactivity standards to the European
Commission, the Association of European Metrology Institutes (
EUROMET) and the CCRI(II)/BIPM (Metre Convention) to support the
international system of units for the Becquerel and Becquerel per unit mass.
Together with the National Physical Laboratory
(UK), IRMM is developing a new concept of a mechanically reproducible
ionisation chamber as a possible realisation of the SI unit Bq, to prevent
loss of the only presently existing reference to the SI unit at BIPM.
Low background measurements
For low background measurements IRMM operates an underground laboratory,
HADES, at the premises of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre in Mol.
Underground measurements of radioactivity benefit from the reduction of the
cosmic ray flux in the way that the instrument background is significantly
reduced. For environmental as well as for many other types of samples,
underground gamma-ray spectrometry can be used as a reference for techniques
based on complicated (radio-)chemical separation techniques or complex sample
preparation scheme.
For example, IRMM has measured samples from Hiroshima, enabling the refinement
of dosimetry models and improving the understanding of radiation effects on
humans.
Key comparisons
As a signatory to the Mutual Recognition Arrangement under the auspices of the
CIPM IRMM participates and also organises key comparisons for the
establishment of international equivalence of radioactivity standards.