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Description
Shallow underground laboratories (less than 100 meters underground) are more accessible and well suited for a wide variety of measurements than their deep underground counterparts. While backgrounds in deep underground laboratories are extensively studied for large, ultra-low background experiments —resulting in comprehensive background models— less literature is available on background models for shallow underground laboratories.
This work presents a study of backgrounds in the Underground Counting Facility (UCF) at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), a shallow underground laboratory for ultra-sensitive radiation detection. Simulations developed to assess the background contribution to ultra-sensitive radiation detectors in the UCF are compared to measurements and are used to evaluate the impact of the facility’s unique design choices on the background. Studies presented here are broadly applicable to shallow underground laboratories.