Application of a liquid scintillation counter to the measurement of tracing radioactivity in experiments on suspended matter uptake in aquatic environments

Abstract

The experiments on the study of the kinetic transfer coefficients of conservative and non-conservative radionuclides, in aquatic environments, need to determine radionuclide activity in large number of samples. Different radioactivity measurement techniques can be selected for analyses, but the liquid scintillation technique is preferred due to its easy sample treatment and its low time consumption. Samples are initially traced with a known activity of a selected radionuclide (2 3 9Pu, M IAm or "Tc). The transference of radionuclides, from the water to the suspended matter, is studied through the determination of the residual activity in aliquots of water sample, which are successively collected with time. In this work, we present the experimental procedures used for the 2 3 9Pu, 2 4 1Am and "Tc activity measurement by liquid scintillation counting, using a Wallac Quantulus 1 2 2 0 spectrometer. Results of the application of this technique to traced water samples are also shown in this study.