Soil and sediment sample analysis for the sequential determination of natural and anthropogenic radionuclides

A new method for the determination of plutonium and americium using high pressure microwave digestion and alpha-spectrometry or ICP-SMS

“…Overall chemical yields are well within the range of values published in other studies. [7,10,21] Nevertheless, our method shows several advantages over existing procedures.…”

“…In recent years, with the development of mass spectrometry techniques (ICP-MS), researchers have also been able to measure Pu radioisotopes by their masses [6][7][8] Most of the radiochemical protocols follow three main steps: sample digestion, chemical separation, and source preparation before the measurement. For the sample digestion, acid leaching and borate fusion are often used [9,10], but are time-consuming [4] and moreover, borate fusion cannot be conducted on large samples (e.g., [5 g). Microwave digestion is another option for the dissolution of the sample matrix, that is faster and uses less reagents, but refractory oxides of plutonium might not be carried out into solution [4,7].…”

“…For several decades, liquid-liquid extraction and ion exchange chromatography were the best approaches [2,11]. Although these methods are still used [10,12,13], most of the recent methodologies are based on extraction chromatography resins using Eichrom Ò TEVA for Pu and TRU for Am [14][15][16]. Using these extraction chromatographic resins considerably reduces the time and reagent volumes required for the analysis [17].…”

Behaviors and transfers of anthropogenic radionuclides (137Cs, 239+240Pu and 241Am) in a protected alpine wetland (France)

“…In solid samples, 238,239?240 Pu and 241 Am were measured following the radiochemical procedure previously published for solid samples [38]. Soil and sediment samples were combusted at 600°C during 24 h to destroy OMs and 15 mBq of 242 Pu (0.320 ± 0.003 Bq g -1 on 25th October 2009) and 243 Am (0.158 ± 0.004 Bq g -1 on 25th October 2009) were added as yield monitors.…”

Comparative study of different analytical methods for the determination of 238U, 234U, 235U, 230Th and 232Th in NORM samples (Southern Catalonia)

“…In particular, the complete dissolution of the samples has mainly been performed using acidic digestion, but this procedure is time consuming and implies the use of hazardous reagents (Lee et al, 2005;Mihai, 2005). More recently, alternative procedures that simplify the digestion processes have been introduced, such as the use of microwave digestion (MW) or fusion digestion (Mihai, 2005;Michel et al, 2008;Singhal et al, 2010). After the sample digestion, there are different alternatives for the radiochemical separation of the different radioisotopes (Eikenberg et al, 2009;Palomo et al, 2010;Reis et al, 2011).…”