Comparison of rapid liquid scintillation multivariate technique with conventional techniques for regular surveillance of water samples

Abstract

Liquid scintillation multivariate, gamma spectrometry and radiochemical separation techniques were used for estimating 3 H, 90 Sr and 137 Cs in bore well samples. Using multivariate technique, 3 H, 90 Sr and 137 Cs has been assayed in triple labeled samples. The same samples were also estimated by other routinely used techniques, like gamma spectrometry to estimate 137 Cs, radio-chemical separation followed by subsequent counting using GM counter for 90 Sr. The samples were distilled for 3 H and its activity was estimated using liquid scintillation counting with the prepared calibration curve. Our results show that liquid scintillation multivariate is an easy and rapid method capable of estimating 3 H, 90 Sr and 137 Cs in water samples with ±10 % deviation for 3 H and ±13 % deviation for 137 Cs. However, in case of 90 Sr the results obtained by conventional method and the simultaneous analysis by liquid scintillation multivariate technique are varying around ±29 %. This could be attributed to error introduced by matrix interference in the conventional analysis.