The Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory of the Metrology Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina (IMBIH SSDL) officially became a new member of the IAEA / WHO SSDL network on December 1, 2018. This news was officially published in the IAEA SSDL Newsletter in April this year. https://www.iaea.org/publications/13549/ssdl-newsletter-issue-no-69-april-2019

Until recently, Bosnia and Herzegovina was the only country in the region that did not have a developed metrology infrastructure in the field of ionizing radiation. Also, no national standard for measuring ionizing radiation has been established at the national level, nor has any of the laboratories been named or accredited in this metrology field according to ISO 17025.

IMBIH started developing this infrastructure by implementing the European Commission's TC Project - IPA 2008: "Establishment of an Ionizing Radiation Calibration Laboratory (Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory) in Bosnia and Herzegovina". The laboratory facilities are located in Banja Luka and are designed to meet the national code of practice for the safe operation of radiation facilities and the IAEA requirements for this type of laboratory. Accordingly, IMBIH / SSDL consist of a single bunker, i.e. one irradiation / calibration room, control room and two mechanical rooms.

Figure 1. IMBIH/SSDL Irradation room

Figure 2. IMBIH/SSDL Control room

The irradiation room (9.5 m long and 6 m wide), with an adequate air-conditioning system, has concrete walls (40 cm to 70 cm thick), a protective lead ceiling and a steel door. The front door also includes lead to protect the control room and environment from radiation.

In this room, a Cs-137 gamma ray source (740 GBq) and an X-ray machine (40 kV to 320 kV) were installed, using the same calibration bench, as shown in Figure 1.

The operator's control panel is located in the control room (Fig. 2), while the air compressor and the X-ray high-voltage transformer and the heat exchanger (water circulation system) are located in the mechanical rooms.

The current laboratory infrastructure is capable of calibrations in the field of radiation protection and diagnostic radiology, but at this time, only calibrations in radiation protection at the source Cs-137 can be performed. To perform these activities, the laboratory has two reference standards: - PTW 32002 1 L Spherical Ionization Chamber (LS-01) and PTW 32003 10 L Spherical Ionization Chamber (LS-02) including PTW Unidos Webline reference electrometer type T10022.

Following the IAEA mission in IMBIH SSDL, the laboratory was granted approval to participate in the national TC project BOH6015 "Establishing National Diagnostic Reference Levels in Diagnostic Radiology" from 2016 to 2017 year, which provided all essential elements for the development of a laboratory calibration service in the field of protection against radiation in terms of: commissioning of Cs-137 radiation sources, donations of lead attenuators to achieve a wider range of doses, and training for laboratory staff for radiation protection calibrations.

IMBIH SSDL Reference Standards have been calibrated in the IAEA SSDL and upon successful completion of bilateral airborne kerma intercomparison with the IAEA SSDL, the IMBIH SSDL has fulfilled the required obligations to become a full member of the IAEA / WHO SSDL network and is now able to provide kernel size calibration services air and related operating sizes for radiation protection on the Cs-137.

The laboratory is currently working on developing a calibration service in the field of diagnostic radiology with the support of the IAEA TC BOH9009 project “Maintaining an Integrated Management and Capability System in the Regulatory Authority and Strengthening the Capacity of the Dosimetry Laboratory”. Through this project, in the current year, the laboratory will receive the necessary equipment to perform X-ray calibrations and support the IAEA in terms of staff training and commissioning of X-ray machines.

Figure 3. IMBIH/SSDL Reference Standards