Determination of natural radioactivity in public drinking water quality assessment

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The determination of 90Sr and the gross α-particle activity originating from radium isotopes was performed on water samples at various stages of treatment taken from water treatment plants before distribution to the consumers. Four stages of analyses were involved in the radiostrontium determination, namely scavenging-precipitation as a pre-purification step, separation of 90Sr and Ca from the matrix constituents, separation of 90Sr from calcium and finally the purification of 90Sr. Both the detection and chemical efficiencies were performed using standard 226Ra solution in the gross α-particle activity determination. The 90Sr and gross α-particle activities were measured using a Canberra Alpha/Beta System Model 2400 low α/β counter. The average activity reported for 90Sr for the drinking water samples was 0.52±0.07 Bq/l, which is lower than the maximum permissable level (MCL) of 1.11 Bq/l allowed by WHO. The average reading recorded from 12 water samples from different treatment plants for gross α-particle activity was 0.396±0.039 Bq/l and this is much lower than the maximum contaminant level (MCL) suggested by the USEPA which is 0.555 Bq/l. However the specific activity for 226Ra for clean water was 0.268±0.035 Bq/l, higher than the MCL of 0.185 Bq/l. Generally the treatment process has effectively reduced the natural radioactivity concentrations in all water samples taken at various stages of the process. The results obtained from this study were also discussed in the context of the source of raw water and its environment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)233-238
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
Volume249
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2001
Externally publishedYes

Funding

One of us (A. M. Y.), would like to thank the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for supporting the work through the grant given by the Chemistry Department, the Malaysian Institute of Nuclear Technology and Research (MINT) for the irradiation facilities, Strategi TEGAS (M) Sdn.Bhd. and Syarikat AIR JOHOR Sdn.Bhd. for the water samples and all those involved directly or indirectly during the tenure of this work.

FundersFunder number
Malaysian Institute of Nuclear Technology and Research
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Determination of natural radioactivity in public drinking water quality assessment'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this