Initial on-site peer review of STUK Measurement and Analysis laboratory

Project Description

STUK (Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Finland) is a designated institute for the ionizing radiation in Finland. Currently, STUK has CMCs in dosimetry quantities. In this project, the QMS of STUK’s Measurement and Analysis laboratory will be peer-reviewed. The focus of the peer review is on gammaspectrometric methods. Currently, STUK has no CMCs in activity and STUK is intending to submit CMCs also in activity in the future. Measurement and analysis laboratory is currently accredited by FINAS (Finnish accreditation service) as a testing laboratory.

The peer review will be carried out by an on-site visit of external radiation metrology expert from PTB (Germany). The review will include relevant requirements for the competence stated in EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017, focusing especially on technical aspects. The peer-review visit is planned to be held in the spring 2024 (March-April). This project will support the development, improvement and evaluation of STUK’s gammaspectrometric capabilities, QMS, general functions and submission of CMCs.

Final Report 2024-04-26

In this project, the QMS and measuring capability of STUK’s Measurement and Analysis laboratory were peer-reviewed focusing on gammaspectrometric methods. On-site peer review was performed by an external radiation metrology expert from Germany (PTB). The peer review was held in April 11-12, 2024.

The review included relevant requirements for the competence stated in EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017, focusing on especially on technical aspects. The peer review was based on the review of quality documents, intensive discussions with laboratory personnel, laboratory on-site visit including some specific steps of the process and examination of documentation as well as several presentations by the responsible person. Results of intercomparisons participated were also evaluated.

During the peer review, the QMS and measurement capability of STUK were found adequate for CIPM MRA. A few suggestions were noted, if lower uncertainty is targeted in the future.
There is no need for improvements, if the uncertainty stays at the current level.

This project supported the development, improvement and evaluation of the laboratory’s QMS and general functions as well as submission of CMCs in the radioactivity.