DETERMINATION OF STRONTIUM-90 IN DRINKING WATER

摘要

A method is described for the determination of strontium-90 in raw and sanitary water at concentrations lower than 10 uuc./l., the maximum permissible limit recently prescribed by the U. S. Public Health Service. A known amount of natural strontium is added to the sample as a carrier. Yttrium-90, daughter of Sr90, is removed by scavenging with iron in a basic solution. The strontium is separated from impurities by a triple precipitation, first as the oxalate, then as the nitrate in concentrated nitric acid, and again as the oxalate which is dried, weighed, and counted. The activity of the recovered Sr90 is determined from either an absorption curve or from the growth and decay curves of Y90 and Sr89, respectively.