DEVELOPMENT OF A RAPID PROCEDURE TO ANALYSE Pu, Am AND 90Sr IN EMERGENCY URINE BIOASSAY IN CIEMAT BIOELIMINATION...

After a radiological or nuclear incident, it is necessary to give a prompt response and to know the number of persons exposed to internal contamination, to evaluate the contamination levels in each person and even and to identify the radionuclides involved. In vitro laboratories routine monitoring measurements employed to quantify (90)Sr and actinides in urine require radiochemical separation and long counting time, which implies a minimum of 1 or 2 weeks to obtain the results, respectively. In this work, rapid radiochemical separation method applied directly to urine samples is presented. It is based on minimal sample preparation, without co-precipitation phase, using extraction resin columns and vacuum box technology. Pu isotopes and (241)Am are isolated, electrodeposited and measured by alpha spectrometry, whereas (90)Sr is measured by liquid scintillation counting. Finally, results of the participation in European Radiation Dosimetry Group intercomparison on Emergency Bioassay exercise and Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz exercise validate the accuracy of this procedure.