Homogeneity assessment for grass samples used for organically bound tritium proficiency test

Carmen Varlam; Cristina Bucur; Irina Vagner; Marius Constantinescu; Diana Bogdan; Ionut Faurescu

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.11.033

Homogeneity assessment for grass samples used for organically bound tritium proficiency test

Appl Radiat Isot. 2018 Feb:132:147-150. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.11.033. Epub 2017 Dec 1.

Authors

Carmen Varlam¹, Cristina Bucur², Irina Vagner¹, Marius Constantinescu¹, Diana Bogdan¹, Ionut Faurescu³

Affiliations

¹ National Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies ICSI, Rm. Valcea, Valcea, 240050, Romania.
² Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, Health Physics Department, Cernavoda, Constanta 905200, Romania.
³ National Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies ICSI, Rm. Valcea, Valcea, 240050, Romania. Electronic address: ionut.faurescu@icsi.ro.

PMID: 29227836
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.11.033

Abstract

The paper presents homogeneity check for dried grass batch to be used in an inter-comparison exercise. When carrying out an inter-comparison exercise, the organizer must guarantee that the unsatisfactory result will not be imputed to the sample and sample's changeability. Therefore, in an inter-comparison exercise must carry on the homogeneity testing. In our study, the homogeneity was checked for two parameters, the hydrogen percentage (%H) and the organically bound tritium (OBT) activity concentration. Ten subsamples of 50g from bulk material were chosen using a stratified random selection. Two replicates from each package were analyzed for hydrogen content and OBT analysis. The homogeneity parameters were evaluated according to ISO 13528:2015. The two checked properties confirm that the batch of dried grass is sufficiently homogenous.

Keywords: Homogeneity check; Inter-laboratory exercise; Organically bound tritium.