A New Methodological Approach for the Assessment of the 238U Content in Drinking Water

A new methodology based on TRU resin to measure U-, Th-isotopes and 210Po by alpha-particle spectrometry

This report presents a new methodology to isolate and measure ²¹⁰Po, as well as uranium and thorium isotopes. This new methodology reduces the standard time of operation, the minimum amount of chemical reagents and the quantity of resin used in comparison with other standard and well-established procedures for alpha spectrometry. Thus, the amount of chemicals reagent was lower than the amount used in other standard radiochemical processes: only 6 mL of 1 M HCl was used for the thorium elution, and 2 mL of H₂O and 1 mL of Ammonium Oxalate (0.05 M) (3 mL in total) for the uranium elution. Likewise, many samples of various activities and materials (liquids and solids) were used to validate the method.