title: Rapid detection of enriched uranium in food.
abstract: We have developed a quadrupole ICP-MS method for detecting sub-picogram quantities of235U in contaminated foods. Notable features included elimination of the requirement for possessing licensed nuclear materials so that non-radiochemical laboratories may perform this analysis in the event of a large-scale nuclear or radiological emergency calling for high sample surge capacity, elimination of several extremely hazardous reagents in sample analysis e.g. aqua regia and hydrofluoric acid, and the method was developed for applying a moderately priced, and widely used quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (Q-ICP-MS). This method could be quickly implemented at many laboratories to increase emergency response capability.
authors.affiliation: Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Food and Drug Administration, 109 Holton Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA. Electronic address: Abdurrafay.Shareef@fda.hhs.gov.
authors.forename: Abdur-Rafay
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Shareef
authors.affiliation: Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Food and Drug Administration, 109 Holton Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA.
authors.forename: Zhichao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Food and Drug Administration, 109 Holton Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Emanuele
authors.affiliation: Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Food and Drug Administration, 109 Holton Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Healey
authors.affiliation: Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Food and Drug Administration, 109 Holton Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Regan
authors.affiliation: Winchester Engineering and Analytical Center, Food and Drug Administration, 109 Holton Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005507:Food Contamination, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D012015:Reference Standards; D014501:Uranium / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: C000615179:Uranium-238; D014501:Uranium; C000615176:Uranium-235
keywords: Emergency response; Enriched uranium; Food safety; Isotopic ratio; Quadrupole ICP-MS