Method for simultaneous 90Sr and 137Cs in-vivo measurements of small animals and other environmental media developed for the conditions of the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

To perform in vivo simultaneous measurements of the 90Sr and 137Cs content in the bodies of animals living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (ChEZ), an appropriate method and equipment were developed and installed in a mobile gamma beta spectrometry laboratory. This technique was designed for animals of relatively small sizes (up to 50 g). The 90Sr content is measured by a beta spectrometer with a 0.1-mm-thick scintillation plastic detector. The spectrum processing takes into account the fact that the measured object is "thick-layered" and contains a comparable quantity of 137Cs, which is a characteristic condition of the ChEZ. The 137Cs content is measured by a NaI scintillation detector that is part of the combined gamma beta spectrometry system. For environmental research performed in the ChEZ, the advantages of this method and equipment (rapid measurements, capability to measure live animals directly in their habitat, and the capability of simultaneous 90Sr and 137Cs measurements) far outweigh the existing limitations (considerations must be made for background radiation and the animal size, skeletal shape, and body mass). The accuracy of these in vivo measurements is shown to be consistent with standard spectrometric and radiochemical methods. Apart from the in vivo measurements, the proposed methodology, after a very simple upgrade that is also described in this paper, works even more accurately with samples of other media, such as soil and plants.