MOSS AS MONITOR OF HEAVY-METAL DEPOSITION - COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT MULTIELEMENT ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

Instrumental activation analysis (INAA) based on irradiations in a nuc lear reactor with particularly high relative fluxes of resonance and f ast neutrons has been shown to open new possibilities for multi-elemen t surveys of mosses used as monitors of atmospheric deposition. Compar ison is made with data obtained by inductively coupled plasma-mass spe ctrometry (ICP-MS) and conventional INAA. Data for 15 elements not pre viously investigated in routine moss studies are presented, e.g.,Zr, S n, I-if, Ta, W, Au, Th, and the rare earth elements Ce, Nd, Eu, Gd, Tb , Tm, Yb, Lu. Other elements particularly well determined by this appr oach are Sc, Co, As, Ag, Sb, Cs, La, Sm, Th, and the non-metallic trac e elements Se, Br, and I. Advantages and drawbacks with the high fast neutron component are discussed.