Determination of radiostrontium isotopes: a review of analytical methodology

A great number of analytical methods have been developed and applied for the determination of (90)Sr and (89)Sr in environmental and nuclear samples using various measuring techniques, i.e. beta counting, liquid scintillation spectrometry and mass spectrometry. This paper is intended to give an overview about the development of the radiochemical procedures for the separation of strontium and/or yttrium including the classical procedure based on a series of semi-selective precipitations, the ion exchange and solvent extraction procedures and the recently developed extraction chromatographic ones offering high selectivity. An outlook to the procedures under development aiming the technological separation of strontium from radioactive wastes and process solutions is also given. Nuclear measuring techniques and mass spectrometric techniques will be comparatively evaluated.