James Verbus with Tom Shutt

Low Background Radon Emanation Counting for the Large Underground Xenon Dark Matter Detector

The Large Underground Xenon detector requires a very low background environment in its search for weakly interacting massive particles. One contributor to the radioactive background is radon (222Rn) emanates out of materials used in the construction of the detector. A radon emanation counting system will be designed, constructed and tested; this system consists of a radon detector, an emanation chamber and the mechanism required for the effective transfer of radon from the emanation chamber into the detector. The intended goal is to determine the radon emanation rate from samples of several critical LUX components in order to allow the proper selection of materials and to characterize the expected radon background.