LNE-LNHB

The Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel (LNHB), located on the CEA Paris-Saclay site, is a laboratory within the CEA Institute LIST. It is one of the National Metrology Institutes federated by the Laboratoire National de métrologie et d’Essais (LNE), the French National Metrology Institute. In this capacity, the LNE delegates to the LNHB the role of National Metrology Institute in the field of ionising radiation.

This role essentially consists in implementing the units of the International System of Units (SI) in this field. Metrological consistency is based on the dual national and international dimension of the calibration chain, which is the fundamental structure of metrology. It thus provides users with access to metrological references for ionising radiation, within the framework of strictly established traceability.

The LNHB perimeter includes measurements of radioactivity (activity expressed as becquerel and its derivatives), neutron source emission rate (n.s-1) and dosimetry of charged photons and particles (absorbed dose, air kerma and dose equivalents respectively expressed in gray and sievert).

The Laboratoire de Métrologie de l’Activité (LNHB-MA) is in charge of primary metrology for the measurement of activity and the transfer of references to accredited calibration laboratories and users in the fields of application such as: nuclear medicine, nuclear industry, or environmental monitoring. To address these problems, the LNHB-MA technical platform includes the means of preparing radioactive sources and primary and secondary measurement methods adapted to the diversity of the physical forms of radionuclides, their half-lives and their decay schemes.

The LNHB-MA is also in charge of the evaluation of nuclear and atomic data associated with the decay of radionuclides (half-lives, energies and emission intensities of the different radiation emitted, decay schemes, etc.). In addition, it is responsible for the coordination of the Decay Data Evaluation Project (DDEP) and for the publication of these evaluated data.