Radiopurity of Materials
Contamination levels of Double Chooz building
materials.
- A lot of heterogeneous matter contains trace amounts of radioactive material.
- In everyday life, the effects of these radiation levels is unnoticeable. However, due to the sensitivity of the Double Chooz experiment, this radiation must be taken into account.
- Potassium-40, uranium-238, and thorium-232 are the usual suspects when it comes to building materials.
- The acrylics, steel, scintillator liquids, and PMT's for the detectors have been specially chosen on account of their purity of background radiation in order to minimize interference.