International Standardization of Basic Industrial Radiotracer and Radiation Applications – Current State

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in cooperation with the International Society for Tracer and Radiation Applications (ISTRA) promotes the international standardization of basic industrial radiotracer and radiation applications. Besides the revision and – if necessary – the update or amendment of existing ISO-standards the need for new standards in this field is analyzed and demonstrated.
A new international standard on non-destructive testing - gamma ray scanning method on process columns as a possibility to check the interior and to locate the cause of malfunction in tray and packed bed columns that are widely used in petrochemical and chemical process plants was prepared during the last three years. The final draft of this new standard was published as FDIS/ISO 23159 in June 2020.
In the field of flow rate measurements of fluids in conduits using radioactive tracers several international standards are known.

• Measurement of water flow in closed conduits (ISO 2975)
• Measurement of gas flow in conduits (ISO 4053)
• Measurement of liquid flow in open channels (ISO 9555).

The measuring principle in all three standards are more or less the same. Therefore, there is no reason to maintain three independent standards on similar subjects. That is why a proposal for a new international standard, which unifies the three existing ones, was prepared and submitted. The first meeting of the international working group to discuss and modify this proposal will be held in Vienna probably in October of this year.
A preparation of further international standards using radioactive tracer methods is already planned for the near future. One of them will deal with leak testing in pressured vessels and underground pipelines and another one will be on the measurement of sediment transport. For the leak testing standard a working draft was already prepared and submitted.
ISO standards are part of accreditation of radiotracer and radiation applications groups, facilitating the promotion and implementation of these competitive technologies in national, regional and international scale.