A quick liquid scintillation counting technique for analysis of ⁹⁰Sr in environmental samples.

In this study, to improve the problem of waiting for the growth of (90)Y for Cerenkov counting and save the time of (90)Sr analysis, an organic cocktail sample was counted by a liquid scintillation counting system immediately after the purification of (90)Sr without waiting for the growth of (90)Y. The chemical separation and the measurement procedures for (90)Sr radioactivity analysis can be completed in 24h. In order to verify the performance of the improved method, the activity of (90)Sr in six environmental reference samples was determined after radiochemical purification with a crown-ether resin column, and subsequent measurement by both the Cerenkov and the organic cocktail liquid scintillation counting methods. The results revealed that the organic cocktail liquid scintillation counting was quicker and had higher efficiency and lower minimum detectable activity (MDA) than the Cerenkov counting.