Measurement of low levels of 26Al from meteorite samples

As part of an intercomparison to resolve discrepancies between accelerator mass spectrometry results and radiometric results, the 26Al activity in four meteorite samples was measured using ultra low-level gamma-ray spectrometry in the underground laboratory HADES. Although reference sources were used, extensive use was made of computer modelling to determine corrections for absorption, coincidence summing between gamma rays in the decays and annihilation radiation following positron emission. Directional correlation corrections were also taken into account. The limiting uncertainties in these measurements arose from counting statistics of 5–9%. Some computer modelling was undertaken to determine optimum geometry for this type of intercomparison involving gamma-ray spectrometry.