Production of radioactive traceable reference materials for measuring radioactive pollutants in the environment

There are very few radioactive environmental reference materials (RM) traceable to the International System of Units. Existing radioactive RMs for environmental samples that can be measured by mass spectrometry are even more limited and their characterisation does not always include relevant parameters such as isotopic ratios. This paper focuses on the development of two environmentally relevant candidate RMs, one liquid and one solid, which could be used for routine quality control measurements. The liquid RM was prepared by spiking seawater sampled from the North Sea, and therefore the matrix is representative of a real environmental sample, while the solid RM was prepared using a synthetic approach by spiking a mixture of silica precursors before a sol-gel reaction. The homogeneity, between-bottles and within-bottles, of both RMs was assessed using gamma-ray spectrometry and mass spectrometry. For the liquid RM, the variation among sub-samples was due mainly to the within-bottle variance, and was lower than 1 %, for all the radionuclides tested. For the solid RM, the <sup>241</sup>Am content measured with gamma-ray spectrometry revealed a statistically significant variation between-bottles, but was lower than 1 %. The <sup>238</sup>U and <sup>239</sup>Pu contents, measured by mass spectrometry, showed higher measurement variability (∼5 %), with the main contribution coming from within the bottles.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Applied Radiation and Isotopes
Published
2025-09-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2025.112204
Primary Topic
Radioactive contamination and transfer
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Production of radioactive traceable reference materials for measuring radioactive pollutants in the environment

Clemens Walther, Anna Lehnert, Habacuc Pérez‐Tribouillier, Marcus Christl et al.
Applied Radiation and Isotopes
Radioactive contamination and transfer
article

Production of radioactive traceable reference materials for measuring radioactive pollutants in the environment

Clemens Walther, Anna Lehnert, Habacuc Pérez‐Tribouillier, Marcus Christl, Lucille Chambon, Benoît Sabot, Lukas Flierl, Ben Russell, J.L. Eberhardt, D. Arnold, Hélène Isnard, Sylvie Pierre, Jelena D. Krneta-Nikolić, Jixin Qiao, Valérie Lourenço, Monika Mazánová, S.M. Jerome, C Cuer
article en

Abstract

There are very few radioactive environmental reference materials (RM) traceable to the International System of Units. Existing radioactive RMs for environmental samples that can be measured by mass spectrometry are even more limited and their characterisation does not always include relevant parameters such as isotopic ratios. This paper focuses on the development of two environmentally relevant candidate RMs, one liquid and one solid, which could be used for routine quality control measurements. The liquid RM was prepared by spiking seawater sampled from the North Sea, and therefore the matrix is representative of a real environmental sample, while the solid RM was prepared using a synthetic approach by spiking a mixture of silica precursors before a sol-gel reaction. The homogeneity, between-bottles and within-bottles, of both RMs was assessed using gamma-ray spectrometry and mass spectrometry. For the liquid RM, the variation among sub-samples was due mainly to the within-bottle variance, and was lower than 1 %, for all the radionuclides tested. For the solid RM, the <sup>241</sup>Am content measured with gamma-ray spectrometry revealed a statistically significant variation between-bottles, but was lower than 1 %. The <sup>238</sup>U and <sup>239</sup>Pu contents, measured by mass spectrometry, showed higher measurement variability (∼5 %), with the main contribution coming from within the bottles.

Applied Radiation and IsotopesVol. 226
Leibniz University Hannover (DE), Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (DE), National Physical Laboratory (GB), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), ETH Zurich (CH), Laboratoire d'Intégration des Systèmes et des Technologies (FR), Český metrologický institut (CZ), Ion Beam Applications (France) (FR), Arheološki Institut (RS), Direction des Energies (FR), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), Norwegian Association for Development Research (NO), Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel (FR), Technical University of Denmark (DK)
Openalex Percentile: Top 75%
Radioactive contamination and transfer
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.