title: Selection of the appropriate radionuclide source for the efficiency calibration in methods of determining gross alpha activity in water.
abstract: Measuring the gross alpha activity in water samples is a rapid, straightforward way of determining whether the water might contain a radionuclide concentration whose consumption would imply a total indicative dose (TID) greater than some reference limit - currently set at 0.1 mSv/y in Europe. There are several methods used for such measurements. Two of them are desiccation with the salts being deposited on a planchet, and coprecipitation. The main advantage of these two methods is their ease of implementation and low cost of preparing the source to measure. However, there is considerable variability in the selection of the most suitable radioactive reference standard against which to calculate the water's gross alpha activity. The goal of this paper is to propose the most appropriate reference radionuclides to use as standards in determining gross alpha activities with these two methods, taking into account the natural radioactive characteristics of a wide range of waters collected at different points in Spain. Thus, the results will be consistent with each other and representative of the sum of alpha activities of all the alpha-emitters contained in a sample.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Radiactividad Ambiental, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain. Electronic address: corbamer@unex.es.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Corbacho
authors.affiliation: Laboratori de Radiología Ambiental, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zapata-García
authors.affiliation: Institut de Técniques Energétiques, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Montaña
authors.affiliation: Laboratori de Radiología Ambiental, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fons
authors.affiliation: Institut de Técniques Energétiques, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Camacho
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Radiactividad Ambiental, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guillén
authors.affiliation: Institut de Técniques Energétiques, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Radiactividad Ambiental, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baeza
authors.affiliation: Laboratori de Radiología Ambiental, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Llauradó
authors.affiliation: Institut de Técniques Energétiques, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vallés
mesh_terms: D000512:Alpha Particles; D002138:Calibration; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000032:analysis*; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D011851:Radioactivity; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D012016:Reference Values; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes
keywords: Efficiency calibration; Gross alpha activity; Tap waters