Progress of Cryogenics and Isotopes Separation

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The National Conference with international participation on New Cryogenic and Isotope Technologies for Energy and Environment - EnergEn 2018 is organized by the National Research-Development Institute for Cryogenic and Isotopic Technologies - ICSI Rm. Valcea with the scientific participation of the University of Pitesti and the University of Craiova and will be held at Baile Govora, in 2018.
ESTABLISHING ROUTINE PROCEDURE OF RADIUM 226 ACTIVITY CONCENTRATION DETERMINATION IN WATER SAMPLES USING LIQUID SCINTILLATION COUNTING Print

 

ESTABLISHING ROUTINE PROCEDURE OF RADIUM 226 ACTIVITY CONCENTRATION DETERMINATION IN WATER SAMPLES USING LIQUID SCINTILLATION COUNTING


Carmen Varlam*, Ionut Faurescu, Irina Vagner, Denisa Faurescu


National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies – ICSI Rm. Valcea, Code 240050, Uzinei Street no. 4, P.O. Box Râureni 7, Valcea, Romania


ABSTRACT

The consumption of drinking water containing radium (Ra-226 and Ra-228) can lead to the accumulation of these radionuclides in the body, contributing to the radiological dose. This fact conducted to the necessity of establishing a measurement procedure for the two radionuclides. In this work, the procedural steps for measuring Ra-226 activity by liquid scintillation counting are set-up. The procedure involved applying the principle of ISO 13165-1. Alpha beta discrimination (Pulse Shape Analyse, PSA, for a Quantulus 1220 liquid scintillation counter) at different levels were used for a known activity of Ra-226, in order to establish optimum discrimination between alfa-emission of Rn-222 and its short-lived progenies. The optimal PSA parameter for α/β discrimination was set to 60. Different type of water samples from Pascoaia geographical area were measured and low concentration of Ra-226 observed concluded that the main source of those waters is precipitation.

Keywords: liquid scintillation counting, Radium, aqueous samples.


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*Corresponding authors: Carmen Varlam, E-mail: Carmen.Varlam@icsi.ro, Phone: 0250/732 744, Fax: 0250/732 746