An improved method for uranium separation from urine for rapid bioassay by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
- PDF / 914,730 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 5 Downloads / 179 Views
An improved method for uranium separation from urine for rapid bioassay by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry Andrew A. Reinhard1 · Jeremy D. Inglis1 · Robert E. Steiner1 · Stephen P. LaMont1 · April R. Cardon1 · Allison M. Wende1 · Deanna L. Lopez1 · Jeffery L. Roach1 Received: 15 May 2020 © This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply 2020
Abstract Bioassay monitoring is an important capability for any facility that works with significant amounts of radioactive material. The speed at which these analyses can be made is critical in the event of a potential exposure. In this study, we present a new method that facilitates the rapid separation of uranium from a urine matrix for assay and isotopic determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. This method is validated with archived urine samples that were previously analyzed using established, more time consuming methods. The sources of uncertainty for uranium assay and isotopic measurements are modelled using the Monte Carlo method to better understand the precision and accuracy of this method at the limit of quantification. Keywords Uranium · Bioassay · Urine · Inductively couple plasma mass spectrometry
Introduction The chemical toxicity and radioactive nature of uranium (U) can generate adverse health effects when introduced into the human body. For this reason, at-risk workers are routinely monitored to assess occupational U intake. Urine bioassay is a commonly utilized technique to determine a worker’s occupational dose. In general, workers are sampled for a predetermined time and these submissions are then radiochemically processed and analyzed by alpha spectrometry (e.g. [1, 2]) or inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) [3–7] to determine U concentration and isotopic composition. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry techniques can provide high precision results in less time than alpha spectrometry for low-level samples. This is particularly important given the extremely long half-lives of some U isotopes, which make alpha spectrometry at low U concentrations difficult. The biological half-life of U in the human body is approximately 15 days [8]. Decreasing sample turnaround time and * Andrew A. Reinhard [email protected] 1
Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group, Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
increasing throughput allows for a better understanding of the relatively short-lived signatures associated with occupational U exposure. Some bioassay procedures require only a simple acid digestion of the urine prior to analysis [9]. While these methods offer rapid sample turn-around (~ 3 h), they do not separate U from the urine matrix and, consequently, the analysis can suffer from a variety of organic and inorganic interferences. This may be especially problematic for 235U dose assessment in workers exposed to isotopically enriched U because the urine matrix can produce a large interference on mass
Data Loading...
