Evaluation of comparison and proficiency test results of gamma ray spectrometry at Jožef Stefan Institute from 1986 to 2014

One of the best ways to demonstrate the performance and capabilities of testing laboratories is to participate successfully in different international comparison schemes and proficiency tests. The overview of all results of such schemes in the field of high resolution gamma-ray spectrometry where the Laboratory for Radioactivity Measurements (LMR) of the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI), Slovenia, participated in years 1986-2014 is presented. Different schemes are compared, strong points and drawbacks of different providers and schemes regarding evaluation procedures, determination of reference values, reporting time, sets of radionuclides included in the samples and range of activities of different radionuclides are discussed. One of the main conclusions is that the comparison and proficiency test samples normally contain substantially larger activities than are usually detected in environmental samples. Therefore the capability of determination of activities close to detection limits is usually covered only by few schemes.