Improving health physics measurements by performance testing

Testing standards have been written to establish minimum performance requirements for personnel dosimeters, radiation survey instruments and bioassay laboratory measurements. These standards were subjected to experimental evaluation and to a consensus review to ensure that the requirements were practical. Programs have been established, using the personnel dosimeter standards, to improve and control the performance of dosimeter processors. Similar implementation of performance testing of instruments will improve reliability of field measurements. Initiation of a program based on the bioassay standard will improve the accuracy, precision, and detectability levels for measuring radioactivity in occupationally exposed workers. Evaluating the performance of health-physics measurement tools will improve the accuracy and precision of measurement and add to our knowledge of personnel exposures. Performance testing will become a more widely recognized tool for maintaining high-quality programs, and the concept will be applied to other measurements as well.