The calibration laboratories for the measurement of radon and short-lived radon decay products at the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS)

In order to guarantee a high level of accuracy in all areas concerned with radon and radon decay products measurement the BfS has established a qualit y assurance management system. A set of calibration chambers and containers was installed in the laboratories which were subsequently accredited as a German Calibration Service (DKD) Calibration Laboratory for the units of ra don and the potential alpha energy concentration of its short-lived decay p roducts. It is traced back to the national standard established at the Phys ikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), which is at the same time the nati onal institute for science and technology, and the highest technical author ity for metrology in Germany. The equipment makes possible scientific inves tigations as well as calibrations for the measuring quantity "concentration of Rn-222 in air" in the range between 50 Bq/m(3) and 100 kBq/m(3) and als o for the measuring quantity "potential alpha-energy concentration" (PAEC) in the range between 2 MeV/cm(3) (3.2 E-7 J/m(3)) and 4000 MeV/cm(3) (6.4 E -4 J/m(3)).