Critical comparison of radiometric and mass spectrometric methods for the determination of radionuclides in environmental, biological and nuclear waste samples

Determination of technetium-99 in environmental samples: A review

“…A sufficient amount of samples is then dried at 60-105 0 C, ground, and sieved to get a homogeneous and representative sample for analysis [79,80]. Afterwards, organic matters in solid samples are decomposed by 22 incinerating in muffle furnaces [8,11,12,21,39,81,82]. This is a very critical step in the analysis of solid samples for 99 Tc, because incomplete decomposition of organic matters and volatile loss of 99 Tc in this stage will cause an insufficient leaching of 99 Tc from the samples and poor yield of 99 Tc.…”

“…The chemical separation techniques used for radiometric methods can also be applied in the mass spectrometric determination of 99 Tc. The main difference is that the separation methods used for mass spectrometric measurement focuses on the removal of stable isotopic interferences with the mass of 99 AMU [22]. This article aims to discuss and critically compare various analytical methods for the determination of 99 Tc in the environment.…”

Determination of plutonium isotopes in waters and environmental solids: A review

“…There are two types of detection techniques for determination of Pu: (i) radiometric techniques including alpha-spectrometry, gamma/X-ray spectrometry and liquid scintillation counting (LSC), in which Pu is measured by its radioactive decay; and (ii) mass spectrometric techniques where the atoms of individual Pu isotopes are detected on basis of their respective masses [91].…”

“…In addition, α-spectrometric detection of long-lived 242 Pu and 244 Pu isotopes in environmental samples cannot be accurately performed due to their ultra-trace concentrations and the low specific activity of these isotopes. It should be also borne in mind that 241 Pu as a beta emitter is not detectable by α-spectrometry [91]. There are however still several advantages with alpha spectrometry as compared to alternative techniques.…”

“…With conventional α-spectrometry, 238 Pu and the combined intensity of 239 ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) [95,96], resonance ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS) [67], secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS) have been introduced to improve the sensitivity and detection limit for determination of Pu isotopes, e.g., 239 Pu, 240 Pu, in environmental samples as discussed in several review articles [91,[97][98][99][100]. However, as a consequence of the low concentration of Pu in the environment, the short half-life of 238 Pu, and relatively high concentration of 238 U, the isobaric interference of 238 U makes the unbiased detection of 238 Pu in environmental samples unattainable by mass spectrometry, even with decontamination factors as high as 10 8 or better for U.…”