COMPARISON OF ULTRASONIC ASSISTED DIGESTION WITH TRADITIONAL METHODS FOR ALPHA BETA ANALYSIS/

An ever-increasing priority of many customers in the radiochemistry fi eld is the turn-around time of sample analysis. While modem instrument ation provides acceptable detection limits with relatively short count times, the sample preparation step remains the time-consuming step in radiochemical analysis. We have developed fast sample preparation tec hniques for gross alpha/beta analysis based on ultrasonically assisted digestion as part of a mobile radiological analytical laboratory prog ram in place at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).