Ciara McMahon, Zhongyu Wu, Kenneth G. W. Inn, Zhichao Lin, and Lisa Karam
Radioactivity Group, Ionizing Radiation Division, Physics Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
One of the most critical elements in a performance evaluation (PE) program
for environmental and radiobioassay radioactivity measurements is the traceability
of PE materials to the national standards. The requirements and criteria
for the production of traceable PE materials have been defined by ANSI
N42.22 and ANSI N13.30 standards. It is important to note that use of traceable
source materials does not necessarily ensure the traceability of subsequently
derived PE materials unless verification measurements are in concert with
the preparation processes. This poster describes the protocol currently
used in the NIST Radiochemistry Intercomparison Program (NRIP) for the
preparation and verification of air filter, acidified water, spiked soil,
synthetic urine, and synthetic fecal PE materials for low-level radioactivity
measurements. The process involves gravimetric dilutions of primary standard
reference materials, gravimetric addition of activity to sample matrices,
and subsequent verification measurements linked through an unbroken chain
of comparisons. The statistical results from t-tests, box plots, and normal
probability tests also suggested that traceability of radionuclides in
the PE materials to their primary standards can be verified within 1%,
with an overall precision better than 3%. The poster will also examine
the results obtained from the PE studies over the past three years.