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Urine strontium-90 (Sr-90) manual and automated pre-analytical separation followed by liquid scintillation counting

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Abstract

Responding to a radiological or nuclear incident may require assessing tens to hundreds of thousands of people for possible radionuclide contamination. The measurement of radioactive Sr is important because of its impact on people’s health. The existing analytical method for urine Sr-90 analysis using crown ethers is laborious and involves possible exposure to concentrated acids; therefore, this work is devoted to the development of the automated Sr-90 separation process, which became possible with the prepFast pre-analytical system (Elemental Scientific, Inc).

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to J. Sakowski, D. Quarles, and P. Field (all from ESI) for their help in the production of both automated systems and to S. Maxwell (Las Alamos National Lab) for practical advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inorganic and Radiation Analytical Toxicology Branch, Division of Laboratory Sciences, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy, MS S-110-5, Atlanta, GA, 30341, USA

    Olga Piraner & Robert L. Jones

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  1. Olga Piraner
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  2. Robert L. Jones
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Correspondence to Olga Piraner.

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Piraner, O., Jones, R.L. Urine strontium-90 (Sr-90) manual and automated pre-analytical separation followed by liquid scintillation counting. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 329, 383–390 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07759-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07759-z

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