Quality Control in Nuclear Sample Measurements - Technical Sheet

Quality Control (QC) is a set of procedures, including technical activities, to ensure that a final product or a performed service adheres to a defined set of quality criteria and meets the customer requirements. Quality assurance (QA) is defined as a systematic process to check whether a service/product under development is meeting specific requirements before the product or service is completed. The non-proliferation treaty (NPT) comprises a verification mechanism: nuclear safeguards. Safeguards aims at the verification of the non-diversion of fissile material from its intended and declared (peaceful) use. Therefore a reliable nuclear material accountancy system has to be established by the plant operator. This accountancy is subject to independent verification by the safeguards authorities. Measurement of samples (for their content in U or Pu and the respective isotopic composition) taken by inspectors remains the backbone of any verification system. Environmental sampling is a supplementary safeguards tool aiming at verifying the correctness and completeness of a state¿s declarations. The system of measurements applied in nuclear safeguards is expected to conform to the latest standards. This technical sheet lists the different aspects of QA and QC in analytical measurements, explains the fundamental role of reference materials, quality control samples, uncertainty of measurement results and interlaboratory comparisons in view of measurements of the nuclear fuel cycle materials. The systematic concept for analytical quality control in the Euratom on-site laboratories is given as an example.

AREGBE Yetunde;  MAYER Klaus;  RICHTER Stephan;  VERBRUGGEN Andre; 

2009-01-07

OPOCE

JRC48338

0392-3029,   

http://esarda2.jrc.it/db_proceeding/mfile/B_2008_040_16.pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC48338,