Abstract
90Sr is one of the most hazardous contaminants in the environment. In this work, the radioactive level of 90Sr in soil along the Hai River in Tianjin, China, was detected to investigate the background radioactivity level of Tianjin and assess its hazards to humans and the environment. Twenty-seven soil samples were collected from 12 sampling points along the Hai River. The soil samples were pretreated by microwave digestion and separated by Sr-specific resin. The recovery rate of carrier (88Sr) was detected by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and the radioactivity of 90Sr of the samples was detected by a liquid scintillation counter (LSC). The recovery rate of carrier was between 45.83 and 83.38%, and the average recovery rate was 71.58%. The radioactivity concentration of 90Sr in soil samples ranged from 0.251 to 0.865 Bq/g, and the average radioactivity concentration was 0.419 Bq/g. In addition, the method had a minimum detection limit (MDL) of 0.292 Bq/g, with only one sample below it, and the average error was 0.096. In conclusion, the radioactivity concentration of 90Sr in the soil along the Hai River was extremely low, and it would hardly affect the human body and the biosphere.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Key Program of Tianjin Municipal Natural Science Foundation (No. 19JCZDJC40500), Environmental Radioactivity Research Network Center (ERAN I-21-18) and Program of National Center for Occupational Safety and Health (No. 2020010).
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All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Experiment operation, and data collection and analysis are completed by Fei Chen, Linlin Yan, Qiang Xiong, and Xiao Ge; the first manuscript was completed by Fei Chen and Linlin Yan, and then reviewed and revised by Jing Liang and Shengyuan Yang. In addition, thanks to Zhen Zhang and Ling Jiao for providing guidance on key techniques for this study. All the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript, and all the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The first two authors, Fei Chen and Linlin Yan, contributed equally to this work.
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Chen, F., Yan, L., Xiong, Q. et al. Radioactivity of Strontium-90 in Soil Samples Along the Hai River in Tianjin, China. Water Air Soil Pollut 233, 284 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-022-05773-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-022-05773-9