Low level determination of (226)Ra in water using a micro-precipitate track method for large-scale environmental monitoring

In the present paper a method has been developed for the determination of (226)Ra in water by the detection, using a solid-state nuclear track detector (SSNTD), of alpha particles from (226)Ra in equilibrium with (222)Rn in micro-precipitates collected on a filter. The micro-precipitates were prepar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of radiological protection 2009-12, Vol.29 (4), p.535-543
Main Authors: Taheri, M, Sohrabi, M, Jaleh, B, Hosseini, T, Montazer Rahmati, M M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Fractional Precipitation - instrumentation
Fractional Precipitation - methods
Microchemistry - instrumentation
Radiation Monitoring - instrumentation
Radon - analysis
Water - chemistry
Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
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Summary:In the present paper a method has been developed for the determination of (226)Ra in water by the detection, using a solid-state nuclear track detector (SSNTD), of alpha particles from (226)Ra in equilibrium with (222)Rn in micro-precipitates collected on a filter. The micro-precipitates were prepared from environmental water samples by collection of radium with lead as Pb/RaSO(4). Several factors affect the (226)Ra precipitation on the filter and its recovery, in particular the filter pore size. Therefore in this experiment Whatman #42 and Millipore filters with different pore sizes were used. Using a 0.45 microm Millipore filter, the recovery efficiency was increased up to 96%, and the alpha self-absorption and scattering decreased remarkably. For efficient detection of alphas from (226)Ra/(222)Rn in equilibrium, three types of SSNTD were used-polycarbonate (PC) electrochemically etched (ECE), CR-39 and LR-115 chemically etched (CE). By preparing a standard micro-precipitate on a filter with known (226)Ra/(222)Rn characteristics, the calibration response of each detector and its minimum detection limit (MDL) were determined.
ISSN:1361-6498
DOI:10.1088/0952-4746/29/4/008