Polonium-210 levels in different environmental samples

Abstract

Polonium-210 is analysed in different samples which can be affected by the presence of a dicalcium phosphate plant (DCP). Particularly, it was determined in sludge samples from a drinking water treatment plant located downstream of the phosphate plant. From the obtained results, it was not possible to establish a correlation with the industrial activities carried out in the DCP plant since the measured activities were comparable to the reported in the literature for normal soils. This isotope was also monitored in different biota species (as mussels) taken also downstream of the DCP, and the potential risk of their ingestion by calculating the total effective doses was evaluated. As a result, it is important to highlight that the ingestion of these mussels does not constitute a risk for the population since the found doses were lower than the values published by UNSCEAR.

A fast strategy to sequentially separate and determine 90Sr, 210Pb and 210Po in water samples using Sr resin

“…where A is the radionuclide activity (Bq L −1 ), R g is the gross count rate (s −1 ), R 0 is the background count rate in (s −1 ), ε is the counting efficiency, η is the chemical yield, V is the sample volume (L), f a is the aliquot correction factor (the volume of the aliquot of Pb or Sr fraction divided by the volume of total eluted fraction) and K w is the waiting time correction factor. 210 Po was auto-deposited on a silver disk following a modified procedure previously published by our laboratory [27]. Auto-deposition was performed for 3 h at 85 °C in an 80 mL 2 M HCl solution under continuous stirring.…”

“…The sample volume required in the present method is three times lower than that required to determine the three radionuclides by conventional methods. For example, in our laboratory a volume of 4 L is required to determine 210 Po in water samples [27]. We could also save around 24 h in terms of sample pretreatment.…”

Improvements of 210Po determination method in thermal water samples

“…Polonium coprecipitation was an important step to improve the MDA and sensitivity of the method. Hydroxy iron (Fe(OH) 3 ) and oxit manganese (MnO 2 ) were the most frequently used reagents for polonium co-precipitation (Martin., 1998;Kim., 2009;Lee., 2010;Lee., 2014;Fonollosa., 2015;Sekudewicz., 2019;Jia., 2001). There were some ways to coprecipitate polonium such as a Te carrier from an SnCl 2 solution (Rushing., 1966), bismuth phosphate (Holgye., 2007;Maxwell., 2013), and by cobalt ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (Co-APDC) chelate (Wildgust., 1998;Gasco., 2002), calcium phosphate (Haridasan., 2001) and calcium carbonate (Nozaki., 1973).…”

Levels and Distributions of 210Pb and 210Po in Selected Seafood Samples in China and Assessment of Related Dose to Population

“…The 210 Pb and 210 Po activity concentrations in marine biota are spread over several orders of magnitude in the literature [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Previous studies focused on the activity concentrations of edible portions of seafood and the related dose assessment to the human [ 4 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”