Radionuclides in waters of the Slovak Republic

Determination of radionuclides in drinking water became increasingly important within the European Union since the implementation of the European Drinking Water Directive in 1998. The limit for the uptake of radionuclides via drinking water has been established in the form of a 'total indicative dose' of 0.1 mSv per year. Unfortunately, the total indicative dose cannot be measured directly but has to be calculated from the summed up contribution of each natural or artificial radionuclide, which is present in water - excluding 3H, 40K, radon and radon decay products. The parameters of choice are the gross-alpha and gross-beta activity concentration. If the gross-alpha activity in a tap water sample is lower than 0.1 Bq/dm3 and the gross-beta activity does not exceed 1.0 Bq/dm3, it can be assumed that the annual total indicative dose of adults is less than 0.1 mSv per year (authors)