Background and Objective

Radionuclides encompass every organism on the Earth. The main interest of the population is on the anthropogenic radionuclides such as cesium, strontium, plutonium or americium although naturally occurring radionuclides like uranium or its decay product thorium are relevant in case of radiation protection of humans and organisms. While cesium is directly detectable via determination of its signature of gamma radiation, this is a challenging task or impossible for the other radionuclides mentioned above. Most of the present methods for the determination of the latter mentioned radionuclides in the aquatic organisms require sample preparation and measurement times of approximately one month. Therefore we develop new and optimize present methods in order to determine alpha- and beta-emitting radionuclides in environmentally relevant concentrations or determination following releases to the environment on a fast and resource saving basis. Developed methods are validated by the Editorial working team of the Co-ordinating offices and are publicly available, afterwards.

Approach

Preliminary Results

Finalysed Procedure Manuals for monitoring of radioactive substances in the environment are published on the webpage  of the the Federal Ministry for the Environment (in German) https://www.bmuv.de/themen/atomenergie-strahlenschutz/strahlenschutz/ionisierende-strahlung/ueberwachung-der-radioaktivitaet-in-der-umwelt/leitstellen-zur-ueberwachung-der-umweltradioaktivitaet/leitstelle-fuer-fisch-und-fischereierzeugnisse-krustentiere-schalentiere-meereswasserpflanzen

These reference methods are used by laboratories of the German Federal States if the did not develop own methods for measurements in the framework of  the Federal Integrated Measurement and Information System (IMIS).The obtained valies are published in the annual reports "Umweltradioaktivität und Strahlenbelastung".