Determination of americium-241 in sediments by direct counting of low-energy photons / S.R. Joshi.: En13-5/86-62E-PDF

"Americium-241 is one of the most toxic radionuclides which first entered the environment as a result of nuclear weapons testing. Additional sources of this 432-year half-life radionuclide include nuclear fuel reprocessing activities and smoke detector manufacturing operations. Because of complicated chemical procedures involved in its determination,very little work has been done on the behaviour of this radionuclide in the aquatic systems. The present paper reports a simple method for its determination in sediment samples. The basis of the method is the low-energy gamma-emission from the radionuclide which has been successfully used to derive quantitative information as to its levels. A simple normalization technique corrects the self-absorption of this gamma-emission in the sample. The technique's utility is illustrated through results obtained on a Lake Ontario sediment core taken from an area known to be influenced by the U.S. nuclear fuel reprocessing activities"--Management perspective.

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