On the use of different scintillation cocktails for determining gross alpha and beta activities in water samples

Gross alpha and beta indices for water samples are generally measured in environmental radioactivity laboratories. Liquid scintillation spectrometers can be used to determine these indices but different factors could affect the measurements. Several scintillation cocktails and different radionuclides have been used for calibration. Quenching effects must be considered for each cocktail because the results can be different depending of the calibration and cocktail used.