Report of the first research co-ordination meeting on the co-ordinated research programme: Rapid instrumental and separation methods for monitoring radionuclides in food and environmental samples, Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection, Warsaw, Poland 4-8 September 1989

Concern about the release of radionuclides to the environment, especially to the foodchain, has been heightened by recent nuclear incidents. The assessment of any release of radioactivity demands rapid, reliable and practical techniques. In the intermediate and late post-accident period, where the interest is in food control rather then evacuation and sheltering, rapid methods would be useful for screening purposes as well as providing timely information and easing sample workload minimizing sample overloads. In the first research co-ordination meeting on the co-ordinated research program ''Rapid.... samples'', the specifications for the time required for sample preparation, separation, and analysis and the accuracy desired were outlined. Considerable attention was given to the need to develop rapid method for sample preparation and dissolution. Emphasis was placed on achieving the development of rapid methods with the minimum sacrifice in reliability, practicality and economy