Radiochemical Determination of Fission Ruthenium in Aqueous Solutions. Nondistillation Technique

Abstract

A radiochemical method for the determination of fission ruthenium in aqueous solutions is described, which does not require distillation to effect radiochemical purity. The use of potassium periodate and sodium hypochlorite to retain ruthenium in an alkaline solution in the ruthenate and perruthenate state permits removal of many fission products from ruthenium by coprecipitation with zirconium hydroxide. The ease of dissolution of finely divided ruthenium metal with alkaline potassium periodate or sodium hypochlorite adds flexibility. Approximately 1 hour is required for an analysis in duplicate, with precision and accuracy comparable to the distillation method.

Nucleonics

“…Rickard and Wyatt (812) Iodine-131 and Tellurium-129. Iodine-131 is also of considerable interest in fallout and area survey analyses, and a number of procedures have been devised to determine it in water, sewage, urine (304, 383, 411, 607), milk (88), other biological materials (119, 193), and soil (349).…”

Contamination of Plant Follage with Radioactive Fallout

“…Samples of fallout particles smaller than 44 tJ. diameter were analyzed radiochemically by methods already reported (Harley and Whitney 1957, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory 1958, Rickard and Wyatt 1959.…”