Year
1999
Abstract
During 1998, two major sample intercomparison program exercises occurred within the framework of the ABACC-DOE Cooperative Safeguards Program. The first exercise, the second round robin of the ABACC Laboratory Intercomparision Program, included participation by eleven brazilian and Argentine analytical laboratories, with the DOE New Brunswick Laboratory (NBL) acting as reference laboratory. This Intercomparison Program's main purpose is to qualify and monitor the performance of a network of laboratories to provide ABACC with the necessary means to fulfill its task as administrator of the Common System for Accountability and Control of Nuclear Materials. The second exercise involved the participation of eleven Brazilian and Argentine analytical laboratories in the NBL Safeguards Measurement Evaluation (SME) Program. This exercise had the advantage of direct comparison of performance if ABACC laboratories with that of DOE and NRC laboratories. The analysis plans followed in the two intercomparison programs were designed to enable separate statistical evaluation of several different possible sources of analytical variability and bias. These statistical evaluations were sent to the participants, as feedback to improve their performance by applying the appropriate corrective actions to their methods, techniques and procedures.