A Quality Assurance Protocol for Radiocarbon Dating Laboratories

Abstract

The purpose of this Quality Assurance (QA) protocol is to summarize guidelines that have been accepted by directors of many radiocarbon dating laboratories throughout the world, and by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Some laboratories have followed similar procedures successfully for years. Laboratories that carefully adhere to this protocol will produce consistently reliable data that will be comparable in accuracy to all other laboratories following this or any other equally rigorous quality assurance program. This statement does not, however, pertain to samples with 14C activities highly sensitive to method or degree of pretreatment, as pretreatment techniques vary among laboratories.