Establishing a Proficiency Testing Scheme for Drinking Water Radiochemistry

As part of its international water proficiency testing (PT) scheme, 'Aquacheck', the LGC Proficiency Testing Group has established a new water radiochemistry PT scheme. The PT scheme is aimed at laboratories who undertake radiochemical analysis on drinking water samples as part of an environmental monitoring programme. Following a scheme design and feasibility study, the new scheme was established to monitor the laboratory performance of participants undertaking the determination of gross alpha, gross beta and tritium activity. Three rounds of the new water radiochemistry PT scheme are now complete. This paper explains the process of establishing such a scheme, reviews the results so far, and addresses future development of the scheme