Report on Two Intercomparisons on the Determination of Selected Radionuclides in Simulated Air Filters (Air-1/1 and Air-2/1 (1978-1979))

摘要

The public interest in atmospheric pollution by heavy metals and radioactive contaminants and the need for their reliable determination has convinced the International Atomic Energy Agency of the necessity to continue its programme of intercomparisons of air filter analyses. Several such intercomparison exercises have been organized by the Agency in the past years. The present report deals with a recent intercomparison of activity measurements of air filters spiked with radionuclides. This intercomparison exercise had the aims to provide laboratories dealing with the determination of radionuclides in air filters with an opportunity of checking their analytical performance and, in addition, it was hoped that these simulated air filters would become sufficiently well characterized to be considered later as reference samples with recommended values for the activities of several radionuclides. The values for sup 137 Cs, sup 54 Mn, sup 239 Pu and sup 90 Sr in Air-1/1 filters seem to be established with a reasonable degree of confidence. The issue of Air-1/1 filters as a reference material for the above radionuclides will follow soon. The comparison of the results of these intercomparison runs with those of the preceding exercises shows on the whole no significant improvement of the quality of analysis. The results of these intercomparison runs show again the difficulties encountered in the determination of radionuclides on air filters. Much effort is still needed to achieve better reliability. (Atomindex citation 15:041419)