Comparative Characteristics of Methods for Determining Total Radiological Parameters in Water

The importance of the determining the gross radiological parameters in the analysis of drinking water is substantiated. The methods for determining the total alpha and beta activities are described. A new method using liquid scintillation instruments for measurements has been proposed in addition to the classical method of dry residue radiometry. A comparison of the use of the methods on various devices is carried out:- for the dry residue method on the UMF-2000 with a semiconductor silicon detector and LB-770 with gas-flow proportional counters;- for the LC method on the SKS-07P-B11 (Condor) and TriCarb-4810TR spectrometers manufactured by Perkin Elmer. The model samples prepared from reference radionuclide solution of Pb-210 in equilibrium with daughter decay products were used. The studies were conducted for the water samples with the different degree of mineralization: distilled water, tap water with a mineralization of 300 mg/l and water with a mineralization of 1000 mg/l. The advantages and disadvantages of the considered methods as well as the importance of their joint use are shown.