Recent accomplishments in low-level radioactive waste measurement at Los Alamos

Is Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) the only laboratory that has difficulty measuring low concentrations of alpha radioactivity in wastewater, or do the rest of the nation's laboratories just not realize the lack of precision/accuracy in its own measurements? DOE Order 5400.5 sets 30 pCi/L total alpha as a goal for effluent discharge. The State of Colorado requires 0.05 pCi/L. The EPA is considering standards in this range for drinking water and therefore, presumably in treated wastewater effluent. How reasonable are these limits with respect to ease and precision/accuracy of routine measurements and real risk to human health and environmental protection? After reviewing the constraints of various analytical methods, the paper describes a method using 236Pu and 243Am as traces to determine low levels of alpha in water samples