Comparisons of the standards for air kerma of the PTB and the BIPM for 60Co and 137Cs gamma radiation

Direct comparisons of the standards for air kerma of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB, Germany) and of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) were carried out in the 60Co and 137 Cs radiation beams of the BIPM in 2000. The results, expressed as ratios of the PTB and the BIPM standards for air kerma, indicate a relative difference in 60Co of 9.9 x 10-3 with a combined standard uncertainty of 1.8 x 10-3, and in 137Cs of 6.4 x 10-3 with a combined standard uncertainty of 2.8 x 10-3. The earlier comparisons in 60Co γ rays made in 1971 (direct) and 1989 (indirect) resulted in an agreement of the two standards within 2 x 10-3. The differences obtained now are due to the application of new correction factors for wall effects and point source non-uniformity of the beam, kwall and kpn, for the PTB standards, which were calculated using Monte Carlo methods. (authors)