Effects of urban debris material on the extraction chromatographic separation of strontium-part I: steel.

An incident involving a radiation dispersal device (RDD) would most likely occur in an urban or metropolitan area. However, the majority of radiochemical separation schemes available have been developed for environmental samples that are not necessarily representative of those found in an urban environment. Sr is one of the possible radioisotopes that could be used in an RDD. It is therefore important to find efficient and accurate ways to separate it from debris in the area of deployment. This research demonstrates that the presence of steel in dissolved samples shows no appreciable interference with extraction chromatographic separations. Instead, it indicates that the separation could actually be improved by the presence of the steel constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]