(a) Except for low dose-rate remote afterloader sources where the source output or activity is determined by the manufacturer, a licensee shall have a calibrated dosimetry system available for use. To satisfy this requirement, one of the following two conditions must be met.

(1) The system must have been calibrated using a system or source traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and published protocols accepted by nationally recognized bodies; or by a calibration laboratory accredited by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). The calibration must have been performed within the previous 2 years and after any servicing that may have affected system calibration; or

(2) The system must have been calibrated within the previous 4 years. Eighteen to thirty months after that calibration, the system must have been intercompared with another dosimetry system that was calibrated within the past 24 months by NIST or by a calibration laboratory accredited by the AAPM. The results of the intercomparison must indicate that the calibration factor of the licensee's system had not changed by more than 2 percent. The licensee may not use the intercomparison result to change the calibration factor. When intercomparing dosimetry systems to be used for calibrating sealed sources for therapeutic units, the licensee shall use a comparable unit with beam attenuators or collimators, as applicable, and sources of the same radionuclide as the source used at the licensee's facility.

(b) The licensee shall have a dosimetry system available for use for spot-check output measurements, if applicable. To satisfy this requirement, the system may be compared with a system that has been calibrated in accordance with paragraph (a) of this section. This comparison must have been performed within the previous year and after each servicing that may have affected system calibration. The spot-check system may be the same system used to meet the requirement in paragraph (a) of this section.

(c) The licensee shall retain a record of each calibration, intercomparison, and comparison in accordance with §35.2630.

[67 FR 20370, Apr. 24, 2002, as amended at 68 FR 19326, Apr. 21, 2003]