Fundamental investigation of rapid emergency bioassay method for actinides and strontium

In the case of radiological incident, rapid and accurate quantification of internal contamination will be required to make quick medical care. In the conventional method, the turnaround time to prepare the alpha source measurement samples of actinide in urine takes about a week, and 2-3 weeks to prepare strontium measurement samples. This paper describes the new rapid bioassay method to analyze both actinides and strontium in same urine samples. By performing co-precipitation and also by using extraction chromatography resins, the turnaround time to prepare measuring samples was reduced to 15 hours. The average tracer recoveries of Pu, Am and U was higher than 70%. And the average recoveries of ⁸⁸Sr (Sr carrier measured by ICP-MS) was around 90%. (author)