Since daily drinking water is one of the major source for the ingestion of radiotoxic 222Rn and 226Ra, the demand for a simple method to determine these two radionuclides has significantly increased. In the present study, a rapid, simple sequential analysis method for determining 222Rn and 226Ra in drinking water using a liquid scintillation counter was developed. The method employs solvent extraction and correction equations for the effect of native 222Rn for 226Ra analysis. Validation and examination of applicability for drinking water analysis were conducted using 222Rn-injected water and 226Ra standard source. Minimum required counting times for examining drinking water on Quantulus 1220 and Hidex 300SL were estimated via minimum detectable activity depending on the counting time. In addition, the correction method, including an equation for reducing analysis time by more than 10 days, was suggested based on the analytical results for different elapsed times between sampling and measurement.
Keywords: (222)Rn; (226)Ra; Drinking water; Liquid scintillation counter.
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