Hydrology of Yucca Mountain, Nevada

The outcome of the analysis of data from a Round Robin on a KCI sample is reported. The research project has led to a definition of a working protocol for the treatment of X-ray diffraction data from powders (XRPD). The protocol is based on the method of "Diffraction Instrumental Monitoring" (DIM), whose main characteristics are briefly illustrated. When experimental data are referred to the expected standard values of the lattice parameter, the method enables comparison with data obtained from differing instrumentation found in different laboratories. Application of DIM to the KCl Round Robin demonstrates the ability of DIM to effectively evaluate systematic contribution. Accuracy on the cell parameter is obtained as a direct consequence; in this application, where the knowledge of the KCl d-spacing was not a problem, the accuracy of lattice parameter is a feedback for constraining the evaluation of the effective values of the experiment-related parameters.