SITE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROGRAM

Sound analytical Quality Assurance programs should include the routine submittal of double-blind performance evaluation (PE) samples to analytical laboratories to assess laboratory performance, along with semi-annual single-blind PE programs. The RESL Site-Specific Performance Evaluation Program (SSPEP) is a double-blind PE program that answers “How Reliable Are the Experimental Results Obtained from Routine Radiochemical Analyses?” It is important to develop a double-blind site or project-specific program that assures reliable analytical results are obtained on a routine basis for the program or project.

Each RESL Site-Specific Performance Evaluation Program (SSPEP) is specifically designed based on the needs of the individual customers. Various DOE, government agencies, state governments, and international customers request specific performance evaluation (PE)samples from RESL.

Who We Are:

RESL staff develops, prepares, verifies, distributes and evaluates the results of the PE samples for the customer. SSPEP offers the customer RESL’s established quality assurance systems, direct traceability to the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), and the chemists’ extensive knowledge and experience in developing PE programs specific to the needs of particular projects.

Program Highlights:

RESL has extensive experience developing SSPEPs for individual customers that include the following performance programs:

  • Air Filters for the Empire 2009 Exercise. The Empire 2009 Exercise was a Department of Homeland Security coordinated exercise to test the response and management plans of 30 federal, state and local agencies to a simulated terrorist attack in New York City.
  • Air Filters for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) intercomparisons IAEA-CU-2006 and IAEA-CU-2008. IAEA conducted, with the Hungarian National Food Investigation Unit, a proficiency test determining gamma-emitting radionuclides in soil, grass and water by 30 international laboratories.
  • PE samples developed for environmental testing of residual radionuclides on Amchitka Island. The NIST-traceable PE samples developed were radionuclides in fish, bone and kelp.