Main points of the method and its advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The following characteristics of the method are attained: energy resolution <40 keV, reproducibility >85%, and time instability of the energy scale <0.1%. The possibility of reliable and rapid analysis in a single measurement of the content of all the a-emitting radionuclides with activities from several Bq kg !1 to hundreds of kBq kg !1 was demonstrated by the example of three measurements of the samples taken from different parts of the former Semipalatinsk testing area and tailing dump of the Baltic region. The energy spectra and final results (as specific activities) are presented.The past century, and especially its second half, is characterized by intense development of nuclear science and engineering and wide-scale use of nuclear technologies for peaceful and military purposes. As a result, the problems of treatment and utilization of the industrial wastewaters and control of the environmental pollution with radionuclides arose. Various well-developed devices and procedures are known for rapid instrumental analysis of g-and b-emitting radionuclides. This is not the case for spectrometric control of a-emitting radionuclides, though, owing to long half-life, their biological impact on living bodies is more dangerous even than that of such radionuclides as 90 Sr and 137 Cs. Hence, development of the reliable and rapid instrumental control of the environmental pollution with a-emitting radionuclides, especially with plutonium and other transuranium elements, is still an urgent problem.
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