The Effort of Obtaining a Random Sample

It is frequently necessary in controlling SNM materials to take a random sample from a relatively large population of items (e.g., fuel elements) which are identical except that each has a unique serial number. If a record of the storage location of each item by serial number and container number is kept, then a random sample can be taken by obtaining a random list of serial numbers together with their recorded locations. It is assumed that the storage within any container is random. The following is a description of the effort required to locate all the listed items.