VALIDATION OF NAA DATA FOR A BACKGROUND SOILS CHARACTERIZATION PROJECT

Background soils from areas around the United States Department of Ene rgy facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee were characterized as part of a n environmental restoration project. The data obtained in this project were validated using guidelines from the Environmental Protection Age ncy (EPA) Contract Laboratory Program (CLP), when EPA methods were use d. However, there are no final EPA guidelines for validation of data o btained using, radiochemical analytical methods, so procedures for val idation had to be developed. This paper will describe the validation g uidelines that were developed for neutron activation analysis (NAA) da ta and discuss the regulatory basis for them.