Calibration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology tritiated-water standards

Massic activity values obtained for NBS/NIST tritiated water SRMs 4927 and 4927E, using internal gas-proportional counting, are reported. The massic activity ratios of all of the available NBS/NIST tritiated water SRMs and samples of the Level 1 and Level 3 tritiated water standards produced by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in 1996 were measured using an extensive series of liquid-scintillation intercomparisons. New massic activity values obtained for the NPL standards, using the gas counting results for SRM 4927E and the results of the liquid-scintillation intercomparison, are also reported. A new determination of the half-life of tritium was made using massic activity data for SRM 4927 over a period of 38 years. The new value is (4504+/-9) (one standard deviation) days. This value differs significantly from the previous NBS/NIST value but is in good agreement with the value recommended in the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF).