Low-cost production of a ⁷Be tracer from rainwater and purification

preliminary results

authored by

Rebecca Querfeld, Silke Merchel, Georg Steinhauser

Abstract

⁷Be with its relatively short half-life (53.22 days) is a possibly suitable radionuclide for radiotracer experiments. Low-level activities of natural ⁷Be can be found in rainwater and might be available as a tracer after radiochemical isolation. Herein, beryllium was first concentrated by evaporation of rainwater and/or iron(III) hydroxide co-precipitation. Afterwards, several separation schemes have been tested including various ion exchange resins in order to remove interfering other elements. Characterization was done by gamma spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, respectively. With further optimizations of our methodology, rainwater may become a suitable low-cost and easily accessible ⁷Be tracer source.

Organisation(s)

Centre for Radiation Protection and Radioecology

External Organisation(s)

Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

Volume

314

Pages

521-527

No. of pages

7

ISSN

0236-5731

Publication date

01.10.2017

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Analytical Chemistry, Nuclear Energy and Engineering, Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging, Pollution, Spectroscopy, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5433-5 (Access: Closed)