The applicability of a newly developed radiotracer technique as a reliable laboratory procedure for the evaluation of scale inhibitors performance to prevent mineral precipitation is demonstrated. The performance of two new environmentally friendly inhibitors to prevent calcite and barite scale was evaluated experimentally in connection with a standard phosphonate-type scale inhibitor using the radioactive tracer technology. The radiotracers Ca-47 and Ba-131 were employed in order to monitor at real-time calcite and barite scale formation, respectively. The results show that the developed radiotracer technique can be established as a novel method for the determination of the minimum inhibitor concentration (MIC) under dynamic, reservoir conditions. In addition, the radioactive tritiated water (HTO) was used as a reference water tracer to identify the inhibitors' properties, such as adsorption/desorption characteristics, in sandpack-flooding tests. Further issues regarding the implementation of the radiotracer technology for the laboratory evaluation of scale inhibitors performance are also discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.