title: The determination of radioisotope levels in municipal sewage sludge.
abstract: Sludge samples from 25 municipal waste water treatment plants have been analyzed to determine the level of environmentally present, man-made, gamma-ray emitting radioisotopes. Samples were freeze dried and separated into dried sludge, liquid-soluble and liquid-insoluble components. These were counted in the low background level, whole body counter at Missouri University using a standard intrinsic-Germanium spectrometer. After freeze drying, the liquid effluents from the samples were not found to have statistically significant levels of radioactivity. Using log-normal analysis, the dried sludge was found to have 0.0016 +/- 0.0022 Bq g-1 (0.04 +/- 0.06 pCi g-1) of 137Cs and 0.001 +/- 0.003 Bq g-1 (0.03 +/- 0.08 pCi g-1) of 60Co. These data can be used to determine if sewage effluents from nuclear facilities have levels of radioactivity above that expected from the environment.
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia 65211, USA.
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Kunze
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Banerji
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stretch
mesh_terms: D012722:Sewage; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive