Module 7: Quality Assurance and Quality Control in Radiochemical Analysis

Description

"Quality Assurance in Radiochemical Analyses: Overview of Requirements for the Laboratory" provides an overview of EPA' requirements for a laboratory’s organization, structure, training, and reporting and for measuring and maintaining control during laboratory analysis through proper use of QC samples and counting instruments. Several references to standards that provide detailed guidance on how to establish a QA and QC program are provided. These references and the EPA "Manual for the Certification of Laboratories Analyzing Drinking Water—Criteria and Procedures Quality Assurance" should be consulted for detailed requirements of the QA and QC program.

Instructional Resources

This module contains 1 tutorial. It is presented as a self-paced Adobe Flash video with audio narration. You may wish to print out the PDF transcript of the audio narration, also available from a link in the "Instructional Resources" panel. The "Links to Additional Information" provide more in-depth discussions of these topic areas.

Tutorial 7.1 - Quality Assurance in Radiochemical Analyses: Overview of Requirements for the Laboratory

At the end of this tutorial you will be able to:

• State the overall objectives for measurement quality represented by the acronym PARCCS.
• Know which documents list the requirements and provide the guidance for implementing the EPA quality system for laboratories analyzing drinking water.
• List the EPA quality assurance program requirements for a laboratory's organizational structure and training, documents and records controls, and data reporting activities.
• Describe the EPA quality control requirements for quality control samples, the parameters to be monitored, and the proper use of control charting.
• List the 4 areas of concern for counting instrumentation QC and describe how they are addressed for detectors, liquid and solid scintillation counters, gamma spectrometers, and alpha spectrometers.