Determination of gross alpha, 224Ra, 226Ra, and 228Ra activities in drinking water using a single sample preparation procedure.

The current federal and New Jersey State regulations have greatly increased the number of gross alpha and radium tests for public and private drinking water supplies. The determination of radium isotopes in water generally involves lengthy and complicated processes. In this study, a new approach is presented for the determination of gross alpha, 224Ra, 226Ra, and 228Ra activities in water samples.

Concurrent determination of 224Ra, 226Ra, 228Ra, and unsupported 212Pb in a single analysis for drinking water and wastewater: dissolved and suspended fractions.

A technique has been developed for the measurement of 224Ra, 226Ra, 228Ra, and unsupported 2t2Pb concurrently in a single analysis. The procedure can be applied to both drinking water and wastewater, including the dissolved and suspended fractions of a sample. For drinking water samples, using 3-L aliquots, the radium isotopes are isolated by a fast PbSO4 co-precipitation and then quantified by gamma-ray spectroscopy.