Participation in IAEA-TEL-201304/28 ALMERA Proficiency Test Exercise on Determination of Anthropogenic Radionuclides in Water and Flour Samples

The Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) participated in the IAEA-TEL-201304/28 ALMERA Proficiency Test Exercise, “Determination of Anthropogenic Radionuclides in Water and Flour Samples,” organized by the ALMERA network. There were three test samples sent together with one known activity sample for quality control purpose. Two of the test samples were spiked water: one contained 134Cs and 137Cs and the other contained 90Sr, 60Co, 152Eu and 241Am. The third sample was wheat flour spiked with 134Cs and 137Cs. OAP submitted all results to IAEA after determining 134Cs, 137Cs, 60Co, 152Eu and 241Am activities by direct gamma-ray counting and 90Sr by chemical separation and Cerenkov measurement. Our results with critical comments and statistical analysis are described in this paper.