The Italian National Institute of Ionizing Radiation Metrology

The Italian National Institute of Ionizing Radiation Metrology ENEA-INMRI is responsible for developing and providing the Italian national standards relating to the ionizing radiation quantities. ENEA-INMRI belongs to ENEA and is located at the ENEA Casaccia Research Centre, near the city of Rome.

The National Calibration System in Italy, as established in 1991 by the Act No. 273, was originally based on three national metrological institutes: IEN, IMGC-CNR and ENEA-INMRI. In 2006 IMGC and IEN merged into one institute which was called INRIM. Each of these primary standards institutes has the task of maintaining the national standards relating to a specified group of physical quantities and units.

ENEA-INMRI is one of the Italian signatories of the “Mutual Recognition of National Measurement Standards and of Calibration Certificates Issued by National Metrology Institutes” (MRA), the international arrangement describing the fundamental conditions of this mutual recognition.

The metrological activities at ENEA-INMRI include the development and maintenance of Italian national standards in the field of ionizing radiation and are carried out along the following lines:

• Therapy level and industrial radiation processing dosimetry standards
• Protection level dosimetry standards
• Radionuclide and neutron standards.

A calibration service for instruments used in the measurement of ionizing radiation is performed at ENEA-INMRI for medical, industrial and radiation protection purposes. However, a large part of field instrument calibration is performed by the Italian network of secondary standards laboratories, the Calibration Centersfor the measurement of ionizing radiation. These are accredited centres which maintain ionizing radiation secondary standards traceable to ENEA-INMRI primary standards.

The ENEA-INMRI calibration and measurement capabilities (CMCs), internationally recognised in the frame of the MRA, are described in the BIPM Web site (BIPM key comparison database, KCDB, Appendix C).

Besides the programmes concerning primary standards and calibration, the research activities at ENEA-INMRI deal with the more general field of standardization in the field of radiation measurement. The programmes in this area aim at objectives such as:

• improving the procedures for practical dosimetry at therapy and protection levels
• supporting the implementation of radiotherapy dosimetry protocols used by the national radiotherapy centres in the framework of their Quality System programmes
• implementing the measurement quality programmes for the National Radioactivity Surveillance Network—some fifty laboratories nationwide—which reports to the local administrative authorities and to the Ministry of the Environment.

The main lines of activity at ENEA-INMRI are related to the following sectors:

• Absorbed dose standards
• Air kerma standards
• Radionuclide and neutron standards
• Quality System service.