ICP-MS as Advantageous Analytical Technique for the Determination of Long-Lived(99)Tc in the Environment

摘要

Technetium (Tc) was the first element artificially created by man and has nostable isotope. The most crucial technetium isotope environmentally, (99)Tc, is a pure beta emitter with a half-life of 2.1 times 10 to the fifth power years. The main source of (99)Tc to the environment is the disposal of liquid wastes from nuclear installations or during separation and recovery of spent nuclear fuels. Because of its long half-life, high fission yield, mobility and current interest in the collective long-term doses, it is necessary to establish a knowledge of the behavior of (99)Tc in the environment for complete assessment of the impact of nuclear industry. Due to various analytical difficulties however, data on the behavior of Tc in the environment are limited. Attention has been focused for this purpose on a new powerful technique, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This report has been directed towards the development of ICP-MS. The technique gives a very high sensitivity enabling long-lived radionuclides including (99)Tc to be measured directly down to pg/ml levels in solutions. Because of its versatility ICP-MS is finding applications for trace multielement analysis and low detection limits in almost all fields.