Nuclear accidents occurred in latest years highlighted
the difficulty to achieve, in a short time, the quantification of alpha
and beta emitters. Indeed, most of the existing methods, though
displaying excellent performances, can be very long, taking up to
several weeks for some radioisotopes, such as 90Sr.
This
study focuses on alpha and beta radioisotopes which could be
accidentally released from nuclear installations and which could be
measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS).
Indeed, a new and rapid separation method was developed for 234,235,236,238U, 230,232Th, 239,240Pu, 237Np, 241Am and 90Sr.
The main objective was to minimize the duration of the separation
protocol by the development of a unique radiochemical procedure with
elution media compatible with ICP-MS measurements.
Excellent
performances were obtained with spiked river water samples. These
performances are characterized by total yields exceeding 80% for all
monitored radionuclides, as well as good reproducibility (RSD ≤ 10%, n = 12). The proposed radiochemical separation (including counting time) required less than 7 h for a batch of 8 samples.