Intercomparison of whole and partial body counters in Germany in 1997

In August to October 1997, the Coordinating Office on Incorporation Monitoring of the Federal Office of Radiation Protection (Bundesamt fuer Strahlenschutz, BfS) conducted an intercomparison test of 31 in-vivo incorporation monitoring laboratories in Germany with the same phantom as it was used for the European intercomparison test in 1995 to 1996. The whole body brick phantom, delivered from St. Petersburg, Russia, represents a reference man with 70 kg body mass and was loaded with the radionuclides Co-57, Co-60, Cs-137, and K-40. The activity, filled in plastic rods, was distributed homogeneously throughout the phantom. Additionally, the body activity of natural K-40 of the person has been measured, who was responsible for the transport of the phantom to the laboratories. Similar to the results of the European intercomparison, there is a low scattering for the results for Cs-137 and Co-60, whereas a number of outliers are reported for K-40. Not all of the laboratories have been able to identify the radionuclide Co-57, because its activity was very low. The mean value of the accuracy was calculated to be -0.10 for Co-60, -0.06 for Cs-137, +0.06 for Co-57, and +0.29 for K-40 of the phantom measurements. (orig.)