Development of rapid bioassay method for plutonium

For the internal dosimetry of plutonium a urine bioassay method is very useful but requires several days to obtain the result of the analysis. To shorten the time required for the urine bioassay, a rapid method for plutonium analysis using the ICP-MS system was developed. In this chemical procedure, a microwave oven was applied for sample digestion, and an extraction chromatography resin was used for the separation of plutonium. The measurement time was extremely reduced by application of the ICP-MS as compared to alpha-spectrometry. The total analysis time was about 12 hours and the detection limit was 0.3 mBq/sample. The short analysis time and the low detection limit indicate that this method is useful not only for special monitoring but also for routine monitoring.