Sources of variability in the determination by evaporation method of gross alpha activity in water samples

Abstract

Abstract Determining the gross alpha activity concentration of water samples is one way to screen for waters whose radionuclide content is so high that its consumption could imply surpassing the Total Indicative Dose as defined in European Directive 98/83/EC. One of the most commonly used methods to prepare the sources to measure gross alpha activity in water samples is desiccation. Its main advantages are the simplicity of the procedure, the low cost of source preparation, and the possibility of simultaneously determining the gross beta activity. The preparation of the source, the construction of the calibration curves, and the measurement procedure itself involve, however, various factors that may introduce sufficient variability into the results to significantly affect the screening process. We here identify the main sources of this variability, and propose specific procedures to follow in the desiccation process that will reduce the uncertainties, and ensure that the result is indeed representative of the sum of the activities of the alpha emitters present in the sample.