Internal dosimetry: enhancements in application, update on the IDEA project.

Efforts in many internal dosimetry laboratories to increase the accuracy and speed of measurements, to improve detection limits and to reduce uncertainties have resulted in improved or new internal monitoring techniques, both in in vivo measurement and in bioassay analysis. The EC-funded IDEA project (internal dosimetry--enhancements in application) aims to investigate why most of these techniques have not yet entered routine monitoring programmes (a summary of these new techniques is given here, showing their potential improvements compared with the currently employed monitoring routines). The project further aims at a comprehensive assessment of these techniques and the enhancements necessary to bring them to broader acceptance with those performing routine monitoring.