Whole body counter intercomparison as a tool of quality assurance

In several countries guidelines exist concerning the requirements of whole-body counter measurements where the performance criteria for the quantities of bias, precision and minimum detectable amount are specified. One or more of these quantities are mostly the subject of intercomparison programmes. The whole-body counter laboratory of the KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute has paid great attention to the good quality of measurements carried out for the determination of radionuclides incorporated in the human body. Participation in intercomparison programmes proved to be a very important and useful tool to check the capability and reliability of methods used. This laboratory participated in nine international intercomparison exercises organised in recent years, by means of which the counting efficiency has been tested for different detectors, monitoring geometries, body shapes and sizes, calibration and evaluation methods used. It can be concluded that in the majority of cases the results obtained were well within the range of performance criteria generally accepted in whole-body counting. (author)