TY - JOUR

T1 - Detection of the Fission Product Palladium-107 in a Pond Sediment Sample from Chernobyl

AU - Weller, Anica

AU - Ramaker, Tim

AU - Stäger, Felix

AU - Blenke, Tobias

AU - Raiwa, Manuel

AU - Chyzhevskyi, Ihor

AU - Kirieiev, Serhii

AU - Dubchak, Sergiy

AU - Steinhauser, Georg

N1 - Funding Information: A.W. gratefully acknowledges financial support by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) in the form of a Promotionsstipendium (20017/484). The authors thank the Stiftung Prof. Joachim Lenz for financial support to finance the Chernobyl sampling campaign as well as the State of Lower Saxony and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for funding the purchase of the ICP-QQQ-MS.

PY - 2021/8/10

Y1 - 2021/8/10

N2 - Radiometric or mass spectrometric analysis of the long-lived fission product 107Pd is notoriously difficult. We developed and optimized a chemical separation protocol for minute amounts of radiopalladium with a subsequent measurement by inductively coupled plasma triple quadrupole mass spectrometry with propane as the collision gas. This allows for detection limits of <2 ng of 107Pd/kg, which makes the method suitable for environmental samples with low levels of 107Pd. For testing of this method, a sample of sediment from the Chernobyl cooling pond was analyzed. Indeed, it could be shown that the cooling pond sediment exhibits a uniquely increased 107Pd/105Pd ratio (0.08 ± 0.02), thus strongly indicating detectable levels of 107Pd using this method.

AB - Radiometric or mass spectrometric analysis of the long-lived fission product 107Pd is notoriously difficult. We developed and optimized a chemical separation protocol for minute amounts of radiopalladium with a subsequent measurement by inductively coupled plasma triple quadrupole mass spectrometry with propane as the collision gas. This allows for detection limits of <2 ng of 107Pd/kg, which makes the method suitable for environmental samples with low levels of 107Pd. For testing of this method, a sample of sediment from the Chernobyl cooling pond was analyzed. Indeed, it could be shown that the cooling pond sediment exhibits a uniquely increased 107Pd/105Pd ratio (0.08 ± 0.02), thus strongly indicating detectable levels of 107Pd using this method.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110953639&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00420

DO - 10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00420

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85110953639

VL - 8

SP - 656

EP - 661

JO - Environmental Science and Technology Letters

JF - Environmental Science and Technology Letters

IS - 8

ER -