Speaker (Part 1) – Jay Tarzia, Radiation Safety & Control Services, Inc.

The objective of this professional enrichment program topic is to familiarize HPS Laboratory Accreditation Program assessors and others with the requirements of the assessment program. Because of the importance of uncertainty calculations in Laboratory Accreditation this course will concentrate on the corresponding technical issues involving laboratory quality assurance, the estimation of uncertainty, and limits of detection.

An important element in the activities of health physicists who are responsible for the safety of personnel and the general public is the measurement of radiation from various sources, including reactors, radiation-generating machines and radioactive sources used in industry and in the medical diagnosis and treatment of patients. To be meaningful, these measurements must be performed using instruments and sources that are not only traceable to a national standards laboratory (e .g ., NIST), but also must be performed by competent personnel using appropriate technical standards and procedures designed to ensure that calibration results meet required uncertainty.

The definition of traceability that has achieved global acceptance in the metrology community is contained in the International Vocabulary of Basic and General Terms in Metrology (VIM; 1993): “…the property of the result of a measurement or the value of a standard whereby it can be related to stated references, usually national or international standards, through an unbroken chain of comparisons, all having stated uncertainties.” Internationally recognized standards from ISO GUM and their NIST counterparts will be explained using examples.