title: Intercomparison exercise on external gamma dose rate under field conditions at the laboratory of natural radiation (Saelices el Chico, Spain).
abstract: The last nuclear accident in Fukushima nuclear power plant has increased the necessity for measuring radiation in the environment. Therefore, radiation monitors providing results traceable throughout the country become essential and it is very important to test them under the same environmental conditions. The first intercomparison of natural radioactivity under field conditions was held in Saelices el Chico (Salamanca, Spain) in May 2011, including an exercise on environmental dose rate. This article presents the results achieved by 19 instruments belonging to 12 institutions from 7 different countries. The tested detectors are proportional counters, ionisation chambers, Geiger-Müller and scintillators measuring dose rate in three stations with reference values from 110 to 1800 nGy h(-1). All the results were given in terms of air kerma (nGy h(-1)) and the measurements show agreement within 25 % in all the sites. Evaluation criteria based on accuracy and statistical uncertainty were also carried out and 25 % of participants passed the test in all sites.
authors: RADON Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cantabria, Avda Cardenal Herrera Oria s/n, Santander 39011, Spain. gutierrezjl@unican.es
authors: J L
authors: JL
authors: Gutierrez-Villanueva
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Sainz-Fernández
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Fuente-Merino
authors: J C
authors: JC
authors: Sáez-Vergara
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Correa-Garcés
authors: L S
authors: LS
authors: Quindos-Poncela
mesh_terms: D000398:Air Pollution, Radioactive; D001417:Background Radiation; D002138:Calibration; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005720:Gamma Rays; D038622:Internationality; D055848:Nuclear Power Plants; D017785:Photons; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D018788:Radioactive Hazard Release; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012588:Scintillation Counting / Q000379:methods; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis; D013030:Spain; D013696:Temperature; D014495:Universities
chemical_list: D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive