99mTc's behavior as radiotracer in surface water and waste

In countries that do not possess nuclear reactor facilities and accelerators, the use of isotope generators becomes practically the only source of production of radioisotopes for the application of techniques radiotracer in various fields. This doctoral thesis contains studies on behavior of a radioisotope widely used in Nuclear Medicine, technetium-99m, to check its validity as a tracer in hydrology, sedimentology and hydrodynamics of biological reactors. In studies waters, sediments and waste three scenarios were used: the Almendares river basin in Havana, Cuba; river basin Pampulha in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and wastewater treatment plant of 'Pablo Noriega' Agroindustrial Complex Quivicán, Havana province. Laboratory tests in batch for aerobic and anaerobic conditions the influence of selected factors was evaluated in sorption of technetium in sugar surface water and sewage. It was found that although the sorption of technetium is governed by processes involving the dissolved oxygen in the water and can cause drastic changes of pH and redox potential Eh, the conditions prevailing in the system or generated by microbial activity are not sufficient to reduce the species TcO-4. A methodology for labeling fine sediment (sludge) by reduction of Tc (VII) with SnCl2 developed. The method can achieve efficiencies above 98% for flocculants environments and to 86% in non-flocculants environments with a specific activity of up to 11.1 GBq / g of dry sediment and meets the criteria of proportionality, brand stability and representativeness of natural material. Finally, the results obtained in laboratory scale campaigns were validated in separate experimental field scenarios. The 99mTcO-4 behaves similar to surface water Wt rhodamine affected by pollution and accurately simulates the dynamics of waste in the anaerobic digestion process. While marking sediment adequately address the hydro morphological conditions in rivers and open channels.