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Rapid determination of 90Sr from 90Y in seawater

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Abstract

A rapid method for indirect determination of 90Sr from its progeny 90Y in seawater was developed. The method employed a fast and effective two-step co-precipitation followed by separation of Sr/Y using extraction chromatography. The novel co-precipitation technique removed excessive dominant salts of seawater and enabled sequential measurement of 90Y by both Čerenkov counting and liquid scintillation assay (LSA). Mean chemical recovery was 88 ± 7 %. Sample preparation time was estimated to be <4 h for a set of ten samples. The minimum detectable concentration of 90Y measured by Čerenkov counting and LSA techniques were 0.11 and 0.18 Bq L−1, respectively, for 1 L seawater and 1 h counting time on a Hidex liquid scintillation counter. Method performance evaluation demonstrated excellent results.

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Notes

  1. ROI of 90Y = counting window where 90Y shows the most intense peak: channels 50–350 for Čerenkov counting and channels 300–800 for liquid scintillation counting on Hidex LSC.

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Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely appreciate the help of individuals at the CFB Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada, who helped in this project by providing seawater. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the federal science and technology program of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Limited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, ON, K0J 1J0, Canada

    M. Tayeb & X. Dai

  2. Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Department, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, ON, K7K 7B4, Canada

    M. Tayeb, E. C. Corcoran & D. G. Kelly

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  1. M. Tayeb
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  2. X. Dai
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  3. E. C. Corcoran
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  4. D. G. Kelly
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Correspondence to M. Tayeb.

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Tayeb, M., Dai, X., Corcoran, E.C. et al. Rapid determination of 90Sr from 90Y in seawater. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 304, 1043–1052 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-3935-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-3935-6

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