Evaluation of a radon-in-water pilot-proficiency test

Viktor Jobbágy; Heiko Stroh; Gerd Marissens; Valeria Gruber; Dietmar Roth; Stefan Willnauer; Markus Bernreiter; Henning von Philipsborn; Mikael Hult

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2019.108836

Evaluation of a radon-in-water pilot-proficiency test

Appl Radiat Isot. 2019 Nov:153:108836. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2019.108836. Epub 2019 Aug 1.

Authors

Viktor Jobbágy¹, Heiko Stroh², Gerd Marissens², Valeria Gruber³, Dietmar Roth³, Stefan Willnauer³, Markus Bernreiter³, Henning von Philipsborn⁴, Mikael Hult²

Affiliations

¹ European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Nuclear Safety and Security, Retieseweg 111, B-2440, Geel, Belgium. Electronic address: viktor.jobbagy@ec.europa.eu.
² European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Nuclear Safety and Security, Retieseweg 111, B-2440, Geel, Belgium.
³ AGES - Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Wieningerstraße 8, 4020, Linz, Austria.
⁴ University of Regensburg, Fakultät für Physik Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93053, Regensburg, Germany.

PMID: 31387079
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2019.108836

Abstract

A pilot proficiency test (PT) on measurements of the massic activity of ²²²Rn in drinking water was organised by JRC-Geel. Fourteen environmental radioactivity monitoring laboratories were invited to participate. The key aim of the study was to test, optimise and stream-line the complete process for conducting such a PT in order to perform a large scale Europe-wide PT in a robust manner. The process involved using all state-of-the art knowledge on sampling, transporting and measuring ²²²Rn in water. It was found that the majority of the participants' results (92%) were within the ±15% reference range. The pilot-PT showed that the applied process was suitable and can be used for the large scale European PT planned for the third quarter of 2018.

Keywords: Drinking water; Environmental radioactivity; Proficiency test; Quality assurance; Radon.