Radionuclide traceability for U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Radioanalytical Services

In 1999, the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) National Analytical Management Program (NAMP) established a Radiological Traceability Program (RTP) as a new initiative for the radioanalytical acitivies related to the environmental programs conducted throughout the DOE complex. The National Analytical Management Program entered into an interagency agreement with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish traceability to the national standard for DOE-EM radioanalytical activities through the NIST/reference laboratory concept as described in ANSI N42.23-1996.¹ Using the criteria established by the RTP, NAMP named two DOE-EM laboratories as reference or secondary laboratories and established a program with NIST that demonstrated the concept of traceability. In order to gain and maintain traceability to NIST, each reference laboratory must meet the performance criteria as defined by the RTP and NAMP. Traceability to NIST is tiered down to each radioanalytical laboratory (monitor or service) that successfully participates in the performance-evaluation programs offered by the reference laboratories. Essential to the RTP is the demonstration that the reference laboratories can produce performance-testing (PT) materials of high quality as well as analyze/verify the radionuclide concentration to the required accuracy and precision. This paper presents the elements of the RTP and the program requirements of NIST and the reference laboratories.