Rapid and sensitive means for detection of radioisotopes in environmental samples, food supply and body fluids are critically important in assuring public health and safety. PerkinElmer liquid scintillation analyzers and scintillation cocktails deliver rapid and sensitive detection of gamma, beta and alpha particles emitted from radionuclides.
Environmental contaminants due to the release of gas from a nuclear fuel cycle can include a number of isotopes. Of most common concern are 131Iodine and 137Cesium. However, Iodine-131's short half-life of 8 days means that it will decay away completely in the environment within a matter of months. Both radionuclides decay with the emission of beta particles (accompanied by weak gamma radiation) which can easily be detected using PerkinElmer liquid scintillation analyzers and scintillation cocktails.
Contaminants within the nuclear facility can include actinide and transuranium elements, detectable by their alpha particle emissions. These include Uranium (234U, 235U, 236U, 238U), Plutonium (239P, 240Pu), Neptunium (237Np), Americium (241Am), and Curium (244Cm). All of which can easily be detected by PerkinElmer liquid scintillation analyzers and scintillation cocktails.
Application Notes
The application notes describe sensitive methods to test for highly toxic alpha-emitting elements in urine samples, in ground water with high solids content, and in high activity radioactive waste (HAW) with high levels of competing beta and gamma emissions. Both the alpha detection sensitivity and the efficiency of sample preparation can be improved by the use of extractive liquid scintillation counting in combination with PDA (pulse delay analysis) to discriminate between alpha particles and interfering beta and gamma emissions. This approach has significant benefits for the detection of actinide elements in a variety of common sample types.
Recent nuclear fallout has clearly shown the need to be able to monitor the radioactivity of food by reasonably fast methods. In most instances gamma spectrometry is the appropriate method to apply.
Low Level Liquid Scintillation Counting of Radioactivity in Food Products
The application notes speak to the fact that low level liquid scintillation spectroscopy can be successfully used for counting alpha and beta activity in food products to monitor the natural radioactivity, contamination by nuclear fallouts, contaminants from nuclear power stations or fuel reprocessing plants.
Download Application Note
Rapid Method For Alpha Counting With Extractive Scintillator And Pulse Decay Analysis
A rapid method is presented for detection of actinide elements from the nuclear fuel cycle (such as U, Pu, Am, and Cm) using alpha counting with liquid scintillation.
Download Application Note
Quantitation of Transuranium Elements in High Activity Waste (HAW) Using Alpha/Beta Liquid Scintillation Counting and Extractive Scintillators
For high activity waste (HAW) from the nuclear fuel cycle, choosing the proper disposal method depends on the accurate and sensitive quantication of low-level alpha emissions from potentially toxic trans-uranium elements in samples that can contain up to 10,000-fold higher levels of beta emissions.
Download Application Note
Gross Alpha Measurements in Aqueous Samples Using Extraction Chromatography and Liquid Scintillation Counting
The detection of alpha emissions from radioactive actinide elements in ground water samples with high solids content is problematic due to the long counting times (>100 minutes) often needed for GPC (Gas flow Proportional Counting) and the limited sample volume of LSC (Liquid Scintillation Counting) vials.
Download Application Note
A Rapid Procedure for Screening Transuranium Nuclides in Urine Using Actinide Resin and Low Level α / β-LSC
The sensitive screening of urine samples for radionuclides from the nuclear fuel cycle such as Uranium (234U and 235U), or anthropogenic Plutonium (239Pu) and Americium (241Am), is made more difficult by the presence of naturally occurring alpha emitters such as Radium (226Ra) and Polonium (210Po).
Download Application Note