BIPM work programme - Ionizing Radiation Metrology

Ensuring the safety of patients and radiation workers, and protecting the environment world-wide

 

Ionizing radiation has many applications in healthcare and industry but exposure to ionizing radiation is also a health risk. Accurate metrology ensures that ionizing radiation can be controlled and used in a way that does not put patients, radiation workers, the general public or the environment at risk.

The aim of our work is to maintain and develop services for comparing primary measurement standards for radiation dosimetry and the measurement of radioactivity. These centralized international services enable metrology institutes to demonstrate the accuracy of their primary standards easily and efficiently. Calibration services are also available for radiation dosimetry.

The work in radiation dosimetry is focused on low- and medium-energy x-rays, gamma rays and high-energy photons. The services use specialist instrumentation, developed in-house; external facilities are used to produce the radiation beams where necessary. In radionuclide metrology, the emphasis is also on high-precision instrumentation for comparing standards.

Development and continuous improvement of the instrumentation and the analysis of results is a theme of the work, adopting new technologies and new approaches to data management.

Technical services

Radiation Dosimetry Radionuclide Metrology

Staff of the BIPM Ionizing Radiation Department