Dave,

The last auto-changing LSA that I spec'd was about 4 years ago. Perkin-Elmer (formerly "Packard") with enough hardware and software to run dual isotope and alpha/beta discrimination. I recall us in the $60,000 range and that was with GSA-schedule pricing.

We had a single-sample LSA counter but it was crap and we ended up not purchasing it. We needed pCi detection limits and the background was way too high to achieve the detection limit in a reasonable counting time. Unfortunately, I do not remember the manufacturer of it. I do remember the price level though - about $8K

Not jokingly - have you tried ebay? Looks like there's a boat load of them for less than $1000:

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ebay.com_sch_i.html-3F-5Ffrom-3DR40-26-5Ftrksid-3Dp2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xliquid-2Bscintillation-2Bcounter.TRS0-26-5Fnkw-3Dliquid-2Bscintillation-2Bcounter-26-5Fsacat-3D0&d=BQIFaQ&c=lb62iw4YL4RFalcE2hQUQealT9-RXrryqt9KZX2qu2s&r=meWM1Buqv4IQ27AlK1OJRjcQl09S1Zta6YXKalY_Io0&m=U_hhz7b548SQIgffiffW0wk-x6LBd7QViyGps-53HwE&s=nmNuHzhk1Pilh0KNSs29IMeWs2D2oR06tLQoz3iD7bM&e=

Harry

-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**med.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of David Roberts
Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2016 12:22 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] RSO question for somebody

Hey all,

So - we have on site a Beckmann liquid scintillation counter that is used mostly for radiation monitoring of spills/uses. It"s used a little by research people, but that has become less and less over the years (they mostly use films and special counters). Therefore the majority of use is by me doing monthly wipes and such. There is not a lot to this, literally maybe 20-30 swipes a month at the most (and really I could make it less).

The big question is this. Our scintillation counter is on it"s last leg - and in fact that leg may have been broken today. I can"t repair it as it"s simply too old, and there is nobody around to service it anymore. I was wondering if anybody had experience using the single sample counters that I"ve seen available. With that, does anybody have a cost estimate of what those things run generally? I simply need a counter for compliance with the NRC - and we could do it different way if necessary. This just happened today, and so I haven"t really had time to think about it, but I thought I"d ask all of you out there what you are using at your University.

We are a small school, undergraduate only, so I don"t have research dollars to purchase a new counter. I"d like something that"s relatively simple, robust, and reliable. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Dave

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