Radionuclide Selective Sensors for Water Monitoring: 99Tc(VII) Detection in Hanford Groundwater

The production of nuclear weapons materials and storage of nuclear wastes at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites has lead to the radioactive contamination of soil and groundwater by several routes of intentional and unintentional release. Monitoring of the radionuclide contaminants in various environmental matrixes (including groundwater) represents an important element in support of the remediation and long term stewardship activities. Currently radionuclide contaminants are measured by sampling and costly radiochemical analysis procedures performed in centralized laboratories. Clearly this approach is not adequate for the long-term monitoring and stewardship requirements. There is a need to develop sensor methodologies that would be applicable for implementation in the field-portable or an in-situ sensor device. Thus far there is critical lack of analytical suitable for sensing of pure-beta emitting contaminants such as 99Tc or 90Sr