NIST MQA FOR ENVIRONMENTAL-RADIOACTIVITY MEASUREMENTS

The Ionizing Radiation Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has implemented several quality assurance progr ams to provide a consistent basis for environmental-level national and international ionizing radiation measurement credibility and comparab ility. These programs cut across a variety of sectors that include: (1 ) personnel protection; (2) survey-instrument calibration; (3) environ mental radiochemistry and (4) radiobioassay. The four basic elements o f the MQA programs are: (1) conformance to promulgated consensus crite ria; (2) documented in-house quality assurance and control practice; ( 3) periodic performance evaluations using appropriate testing material s and instruments; and (4) periodic on-site assessments by technical e xperts. The periodic performance evaluations are important for the dem onstration of measurement traceability to the national and internation al physical standards. Traceability testing, however, must be augmente d by the other elements to provide the strongest rationale for measure ment assurance. This paper will describe the NIST programs and future directions for new programs.