Jr. Cadieux et al., MEASUREMENT OF ACTINIDES IN ENVIRONMENTAL-SAMPLES BY PHOTON ELECTRON REJECTING ALPHA-LIQUID SCINTILLATION, Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 353(1-3), 1994, pp. 534-538
This work describes the adaptation of extractive scintillation with a
Photon-Electron Rejecting Alpha Liquid Scintillation (PERALS) ((TM) OR
DELA, Inc.) spectrometer to the analysis of actinides in environmental
samples from the Savannah River Site (SRS). Environmental quality ass
urance !standards and actual water samples were treated by one of two
methods; either a two step direct extraction or, for more complex samp
les, pretreatment by an extraction chromatographic separation prior to
measurement of the alpha activity by PERALS. Accuracy of the method o
f +/- 5% was confirmed on a number of sample types at activity levels
of a few pCi/l or less: Minimum detectable activities were estimated f
or counting times up to a week in duration and were as low as 0.003-0.
005 pCi/l.