11–16 May 2014
Casino Conference Centre
Europe/Prague timezone

Rapid determination of radiostrontium in milk using automated radionuclides separator and liquid scintillation counter

12 May 2014, 17:15
1h 30m
Gallery (Casino Conference Centre)

Gallery

Casino Conference Centre

Reitenbergerova 4/95, Mari&#225;nsk&#233; L&#225;zn&#283;, Czech Republic <font color=white>
Poster Separation Methods, Speciation Poster Session - Separation Methods, Speciation

Speakers

Dr Hyuncheol Kim (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team)Dr Jong Myoung Lim (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team)Dr Kun Ho Chung (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team)

Description

Milk is one of the special important matrices to be rapidly assessed its radioactive contamination in emergency situations such as a nuclear plant accident. Because of its chemical and biological similarities to calcium in milk, radiostrontium can be incorporated into human organism, preferentially in bone tissue, by milk ingestion. Development of rapid analytical methods for radiostrontium in milk is essential for emergency situations. Both 89Sr and 90Sr, produced by the fission reaction of nuclear fuel in a nuclear reactor, are beta emitters which require radiochemical separation for radiometric analysis. The conventional methods for the determination of radiostrontium in milk using time consuming sample preparations and manual chemical separations are usually too slow to take measures for emergency situations. A modular automated radionuclide separator for 89/90Sr (MARS Sr-90) has been developed for the rapid and reproducible isolation of radiostrontium. MARS Sr-90, designed and built in our laboratory, was successfully applied to the isolation of radiostrontium in milk samples. MARS Sr-90 consists of four parts; a control module, a pump module, a valve module and a column module. Control software developed on the LabView platform is a virtual instrument to control MARS Sr-90 by means of manipulating the most important input parameters through the graphical user interface on the computer screen. The automated radiochemical procedures for separation and purification of 89/90Sr in milk are developed. MARS Sr-90 uses cation exchange resin for pre-concentration of 89/90Sr from a milk matrix and Sr-Spec resin for purification of 89/90Sr from interfering radioactive nuclides. By using MARS Sr-90 with rapid flow rates, sample preparation time is minimized. The activities of purified 89/90Sr are simultaneously determined by the measurement of the Cherenkov radiation of 89Sr and liquid scintillation radiation of 90Sr using 1220 Quantulus liquid scintillation counter. The developed automated radiochemical procedures provide a rapid, safe and reproducible separation of 89/90Sr from milk samples. Compared to conventional 89/90Sr separation methods carried out manually, MARS Sr-90 is faster, less labor intensive and expected to be widely used as a powerful and convenient tool for the chemical separation and purification of 89/90Sr found in various foodstuffs for an emergency situation.

Primary author

Dr Kun Ho Chung (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team)

Co-authors

Mr Geun-Sik Choi (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team) Dr Hyuncheol Kim (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team) Dr Jong Myoung Lim (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team) Dr Mun Ja Kang (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team) Mr Young-Yong Ji (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team)

Presentation materials