title: "Realisation of the becquerel"--reducing the impact of equipment failure.
abstract: The goal of the CCRI(II) "Realisation of the becquerel" project is to design a reproducible radioactivity standard which will increase the robustness of the current international reference system for radioactivity measurements. Tests performed with a first prototype ionisation chamber of this project, built in 2005, are presented. Based on experience with the first prototype, a new design was proposed in 2010 aiming at achieving the very ambitious project goals. The article discusses the status of the project and the advantages of the new design.
authors.affiliation: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Retieseweg 111, B-2440 Geel, Belgium.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Suliman
authors.affiliation: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Retieseweg 111, B-2440 Geel, Belgium. Electronic address: jan.paepen@ec.europa.eu.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paepen
authors.affiliation: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Retieseweg 111, B-2440 Geel, Belgium.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wätjen
keywords: International reference system (SIR); Ionisation chamber prototype; Monte Carlo simulations; Reproducibility