A portable precision ionization chamber: The transfer ionization reference chamber

A portable instrument was developed at the Institute of Radiation Physics (IRA) for on-site radionuclides measurements. It will enable the measurement of short-lived radionuclides in nuclear medicine departments or isotope production centres. The system involves an ionization chamber read directly by an electrometer and it was optimized to ensure a good reproducibility through the selection of an appropriate vial, filling volume and source position in the well chamber, as well as monitoring the external background and performing a detailed uncertainty estimation. The calibration factors were determined using solutions whose activity concentration is traceable to the international reference system using the IRA reference chamber. Currently the transfer ionization chamber is calibrated for F-18, C-11, O-15, N-13, I-131 and Tc-99m. The final instrument is able to measure isotope activities with a relative standard uncertainty not larger than 1%. •We designed a portable ionization chamber for short half-lives nuclides activity measurement on site.•A precise estimation of the uncertainties was made allowing an accuracy less than 1%.•The chamber is calibrated using standardized reference samples.•External background is monitored using a probe in coincidence.•The chamber is validated with measurements of F-18 in production site and in a nuclear medicine department.