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Updated: May 31, 2026

Separation of Uranium and Thorium for 230Th-U Dating of Submarine Hydrothermal Sulfides
Published on: May 20, 2019
Rapid determination of uranium isotopes in urine by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry
1Chalk River Laboratories, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River, ON, Canada K0J 1J0. shiy@aecl.ca
Abstract:
Following a radiological or nuclear emergency involving uranium exposure, rapid analytical methods are needed to analyze the concentration of uranium isotopes in human urine samples for early dose assessment. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) technique, with its high sample throughput and high sensitivity, has advantages over alpha spectrometry for uranium urinalysis after minimum sample preparation. In this work, a rapid sample preparation method using an anion exchange chromatographic column was developed to separate uranium from the urine matrix. A high-resolution sector field ICP-MS instrument, coupled with a high sensitivity desolvation sample introduction inlet, was used to determine uranium isotopes in the samples. The method can analyze up to 24 urine samples in two hours with the limits of detection of 0.0014, 0.10, and 2.0 pg mL(-1) for (234)U, (235)U, and (238)U, respectively, which meet the requirement for isotopic analysis of uranium in a radiation emergency.
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