title: Quality assurance for the measurements and monitoring of radioactivity in the environment.
abstract: During the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) of the European Commission--according to an institutional programme in support to the policy of the European Commission for the implementation of Art. 35 and 36 of the Euratom Treaty as well as in the framework of the OSPAR Convention for the protection of marine environment of the north-east Atlantic--at the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU--General Directorate Joint Research Centre--European Commission), a reference laboratory for the measurement of radioactivity in the environment (MaRE laboratory) has been set up. In this paper, the principles and philosophy in order to improve the quality and reliability of analytical data for the measurement and monitoring of radioactivity in the environment under a quality assurance (QA) programme are presented. Examples of how a QA programme at the MaRE laboratory is developed and applied are given. Internal and external quality control (QC) programmes are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Transuranium Elements, P.O. Box 2340, 76125 Karlsruhe, Germany. betti@itu.fzk.de
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Betti
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Aldave de las Heras
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D007391:International Cooperation; D011786:Quality Control; D011847:Radioactive Fallout / Q000032:analysis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D011847:Radioactive Fallout; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive