Experimental determination of soil sampling uncertainty in the context of environmental radiological monitoring

Damien Braekers; Michel Bruggeman; Alfred Vidic; Avoko Ramahaleotsitohaina; Liesel Sneyers; Irma Didovic; Leen Verheyen

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110727

Experimental determination of soil sampling uncertainty in the context of environmental radiological monitoring

Appl Radiat Isot. 2023 May:195:110727. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110727. Epub 2023 Feb 25.

Authors

Damien Braekers¹, Michel Bruggeman², Alfred Vidic³, Avoko Ramahaleotsitohaina⁴, Liesel Sneyers², Irma Didovic³, Leen Verheyen²

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Radioelements (IRE), Avenue de l'espérance 1 B-6220, Fleurus, Belgium. Electronic address: damien.braekers@ire.eu.
² Belgian Nuclear research Center (SCK CEN), Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol, Belgium.
³ Institute for Public Health of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (IPH), M. Tita 9, 71000, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
⁴ Institute for Radioelements (IRE), Avenue de l'espérance 1 B-6220, Fleurus, Belgium.

PMID: 36863266
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110727

Abstract

Uncertainty associated with nuclear counting analyses are attributed to two main components of uncertainty; one is related to sampling, the other to sample preparation and the subsequent nuclear counting. The ISO/IEC 17025 standard of 2017 require accredited laboratories carrying out their own sampling to estimate the uncertainty associated with sampling in the field. This study presents the results of a sampling campaign and analysis by gamma spectrometry to determine the sampling uncertainty related to the measurement of radionuclides in soil.

Keywords: ANOVA model; Gamma spectrometry; ISO 17025 standard; Radiological monitoring; Sampling uncertainty; Soil.