Rapid analysis of emergency urine and water samples

Abstract

uranium results for NRIP-08 water samples were not affected. This problem, which was not observed for NRIP-06 or NRIP -07 urine samples, was resolved by using an enhanced 3 210 Po removal step, which will be described.

Rapid separation method for emergency water and urine samples

“…The following column separation was performed, as outlined in a previous paper 4 . TEVA, TRU, and Sr-Resin cartridges were stacked on the vacuum box from top to bottom, in that order.…”

“…There is an increasing need to develop faster analytical methods for emergency response, including emergency water and urine samples 1 Calcium phosphate precipitation, used previously to pre-concentrate actinides and 90 Sr in NRIP urine and water samples 4 , was streamlined for faster processing of the NRIP 2008 urine and water samples. The water rinse of the calcium phosphate precipitate typically performed after the initial precipitation was eliminated, saving approximately 20-30 minutes in preparation time.…”

“…As a result, much faster analysis times were achieved, less than 3 hours for determination of 90 Sr and 3-4 hours for actinides, 25-33% faster than results reported for NRIP-07 and ~100% faster than NRIP-06 report times. High levels of potential matrix 4 interferences may be present in emergency samples. Extremely high levels of 210 Po were found to have an adverse effect on the uranium results for the NRIP-08 urine samples, but this problem was resolved by using an enhanced 210 Po removal step in the separation method.…”

Rapid determination of actinides in urine by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and alpha spectrometry: A hybrid approach

“…A 0.5 ml volume of 30 wt% hydrogen peroxide was added after the plutonium was eluted to oxidize any residual uranium to U 6+ as a precaution. After waiting 15 minutes, the solutions were filtered onto Actinide filters were counted by alpha spectrometry for approximately 16 hours, but shorter count times (<1 hour) can also be performed for emergency response samples using higher level tracers [2], depending on the detection limit needed.…”

“…Rapid methods using extraction chromatography and alpha spectrometry have been reported by this laboratory for both emergency water and urine samples [2,3,4]. Inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a versatile technique for elemental and isotopic analysis.…”