Spiked air filters for the 2014 EC measurement comparison on simulated airborne particulates

In 2014, the European Commission Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (JRC-IRMM) organized on request of the Directorate-General Energy an interlaboratory comparison (EC ILC) exercise on 137Cs measurement in air filters; a similar exercise was organized in 2003. This report describes the production and distribution of the reference material to the 76 European laboratories monitoring radioactivity in the environment, which participated at the ILC. The JRC-IRMM provided the comparison samples which were prepared individually for each laboratory using a gravimetrically diluted 137Cs solution standardised by JRC-IRMM. The samples were made by gravimetrically dispensing the necessary activity amounts close to those the laboratories routinely measure.